This parable is teaching us that if you live with excuses you will miss out! You will miss out on potential opportunities, as well as God’s purpose for you. Paul writes in Romans 2:1, “You have no excuse”. There is no valid excuse not to do what God is calling you to do. When God speaks to you about your life and puts a call to a certain area in your heart, it’s because He knows you can do it. Sometimes, because of the knocks of life we end up coming back to him with what we think are valid excuses, but the actual fact is the excuse is just a cover up! A good definition of “compromise” is this: the act of changing the question to fit the answer. A lot of us do that in changing God’s calling and purpose to fit where we are at. Compromise is also perfected by our trying to blend in. As Christians, we were never meant to blend in. 1 Peter 2:9 exhorts us to declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. We were created to stand out and shine. Consensus does not mean something is right. Stop trying to fit in, embrace the call on your life and stand out! Compromise can also be found in trying to take the short cuts. I’m sure there have been times when you have been driving and you decided to take a ‘short cut’ which turned out to be longer and a complete waste of time and energy. We try to do this in all areas of our lives, but excellence is not achieved through cutting corners. In fact when it comes to the things of God, the only short cut is waiting on God’s timing!
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#4: Indecision If you are indecisive in the areas God has impressed on your heart, you will end up being average. Deuteronomy 30:19 says, “…I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” Meanwhile, James 1 adds, “He is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways.” I find that when I am indecisive in areas of my calling, I can be easily swayed by impulse, which is dangerous. This is why we need two things in our lives: God and good friends. For the first, He will help us see clearly and wisely when are struggling to make the right decision, while the second are those who would bring the best out of us and spur us to be more than average. To live the life God has intended for us, we have to fight compromise. But to do that, we need to learn how to surrender to God. Remember the powerful truth of Psalm 139:5, “You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me”. God surrounds us and we can and need to surrender to Him daily. Let’s choose today to never settle for average! T
Rev Glyn Barrett
is the Senior Pastor of !Audacious Church, a nationshaking church in Manchester, England and also the author of books like ‘if I Was The Devil’ and ‘The Audacious Revolution’. A powerful communicator, Glyn’s motivational teachings from God’s Word have impacted the lives of tens of thousands of people around the world.