Top Ten Tip - 8. Always Taking Risks / Always Overcoming

First, a joke. An old Italian man lived alone in the country. He wanted to dig his tomato garden, but it was very hard work as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament.

Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty badly because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me.
Love, Dad

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Dad,
Don't dig up that garden. That's where I buried the bodies.
Love, Vinnie

At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Dad,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love you, Vinnie

The thing about Vinnie is - he asked the right questions!

He could have said: "Why am I stuck in prison? or, why do people grow old? or, why is my father all alone?

What kind of answer would he have obtained from those kinds of questions?
You know this thing called the Christian life? Well in case you hadn't heard, it's impossible!

In Matthew chapter 5 to chapter 7, Jesus spells out what it means to live the Christian life. Most of us know some of it; many of us don't know most of it.

Sometimes people think it's about a very high standard of moral living. It is not just a high standard; it's an impossible standard! Just try reading through it slowly and see how you're doing.

Just think of some of the things that Jesus talks about:
Loving your enemy means not just forgiving them, but loving them, and 'doing good' to them.
How about never judging others, but instead constantly working on God's self-improvement programme, by taking the plank out of our own eyes.

How about not worrying about money 'ever'?
Jesus was clear that for anything we needed we just have to ask for it and it would be given to us, as we seek his kingdom.
These and many other things that Jesus teaches when you get down to it, seem to be impossible.

So the Christian life is impossible and the sooner we realize it the better. When we acknowledge that it is impossible, we will have to rely fully on God's resources, and then we start to become the real over-comers God always intended us to be.
Not trying to do things in our own strength, but learning to overcome the obstacles that appear before us. For example, dealing lovingly and truthfully, in challenging relationships. Humbly allowing God to continue to work on our character through trial.

Taking the growth risks in our ministry, because lives need to be changed.
Making faith steps with finance that may seem foolish to anyone else watching.

One of my favorite verses when it comes to overcoming and risk taking in the course of God's kingdom is John chapter 15, verse 16. I think I learnt it on the weekend that I gave my life to Jesus Christ.

He says this: "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit".

You see it's a bit like this. Sometimes we think we chose to follow Jesus. We remember the choices we made, the event that we go back to, the book that we read on the day that we signed up for Jesus. We often have it in our minds that we have chosen to follow Jesus. but He says that's not the case. He says "I chose you". This is one of the main thinking patterns that greatly helps in overcoming adversity.

Just stop for a moment and say out loud 'God has chosen me' Say it several times and start to believe it again. God has chosen me.

Remember, and recall all the ways you know that he has chosen you, and called you and set you on destiny's path. I remember it, even when I go wrong that God loves me and: HE'S CHOSEN ME!! And when a big barrier suddenly falls from the sky and stands in front of me, defying me to take the next step, that's the point at which I must learn to be an overcomer. One of the main ways I overcome is by remembering:  the deal is God chose me and I didn't choose him.

He chose me to bear fruit. I am chosen by God Almighty with all his resources, with all his armies, with all his Angels and with all kinds of his people on my side.

The obstacle must be bowled over by that and I can carry on. Then another obstacle comes and I remind myself - Jesus said then and he says to me today "You didn't choose me Martin. I chose you and appointed you to go double the height and overcome the next obstacle".

So then my faith grows day by day, and so does my ability to see the invisible and make the impossible happen by faith.

Let me finish by making this really simple and concrete.

We agree that the Christian life is impossible in our own resource.
We agree that God has chosen us to do his bidding, with his resources.
We start asking the right questions.

Asking the right questions? Have you ever noticed, we ask questions all the time? (secretly, in our minds) for example:

Do I want to go to this service?
Why are other people more successful than me?
Why is this thing not working again?
Why have these people, let me down?

Those kinds of questions tend to produce the same negative answers in our mind. Usually the answers reinforce our inabilities, our failure's and our weaknesses. Now let's think like a Vinnie.

Recently I have been in the process of training my mind to think differently; to agree with God and ask the questions from that standpoint. A question beginning with a 'why' usually ends up in a 'pity party'. A question beginning with 'how' or a 'who' usually has more faith attached to it.

Questions like, 'who can I spend time with who knows how to overcome this kind of difficulty?' How can I do this job differently to get where God wants me.

Great question askers I think included Nelson Mandela, who when he was imprisoned for years seems to have asked himself a question like, 'what can I do to get ready for when I am president?' - it's well known that he wore out shoes exercising everyday in his little cell.

How about Joni Eriksson Tada, who inspired me a great deal as a young Christian (she became a quadraplegic in her late teams through an accident), must have eventually asked herself. 'How can I use what's happened to me to be a blessing to other people'.

Then there is Henry Ford, who to the complete incredulity of many of his friends and colleagues kept asking the question. 'How can I make the motorcar, affordable to every person?'.

These people became overcomers by simply thinking about life differently, and by asking the right question with a different mindset.

Romans 12 verses one to three challenges us to 'be transformed by the renewing of our minds'. May I encourage you to stop asking any negative or faithless questions that come to mind, any time impossible circumstances seem to arise. We only end up with our own poor resources.

By changing a 'why' to a 'how' or a 'who' and agreeing with God and all that he has called you to be, may you keep on walking toward your destiny and overcoming the impossible.