Things That Sabotage Our Success – Part 3 – No Help and Naysayers
By Ben Fronczek
As we began the New Year, I started a series of lessons I have titled Things that Sabotage our Success. As I thought about how we forget and cast our New Year resolutions, I could not help but think about so many others dreams and goals we have sidetracked or cast aside over the years. I have to admit, members of my family have great imaginations and we have had some great ideas, and have thought about doing some awesome things only to shelf many of those ideas and never act on them.
And so I asked myself why… why do we do this? And after thinking about it for some time, I am convinced that we allow certain things to sabotage or short circuit those ideas, plans, and goals. I therefore wanted to share with you some thoughts on this topic because I think that we all can be guilty of robbing ourselves of the benefits of our great ideas; ideas that God Himself may have planted in our heads.
In part one, the first thing I mentioned,that I believe sabotages our success is our own‘Stinkin Thinkin;’ When we start to doubt ourselves, when we start to doubt our ability, and even worst yet, when we start thinking that we unworthy of success and feel like we don’t deserve anything better than we have right now. That’s what I consider, ‘Stinkin Thinkin.’
In that lesson I made mention of the fact that the Bible tells us that we are created in God’s image… He made us with the awesome ability to reason and be creative, and make and do wonderful things. As His children, why wouldn’t our heavenly Father want us to be creative and blessed by the fruit of our ideas and work of our hands. So we need to get rid of that ‘Stinkin Thinkin,’ and start believing in our self, and realize we are worthy because we are God’s children created in His image to do some amazing things with His help.
Last week in part two, I mentioned something else that can hinder us from reaching goals or keep us from doing things that we would like to do; and that is when we get too comfortable in our own ruts. The point is sometimes we can get so comfortable or even dependent on our particular routines we don’t want to change for any reason; even if that change is for the better or will help us get or achieve what we only dream of.
I talked about not clinging too tightly to our routines, and the importance of getting out of our rut and occasionally changing our routine, trying and learning something new so we can keep our self fresh, alive and creative.
Today I would like to consider two more things that I believe can hinder us or even short circuit us from achieving what we only dream about doing. These two items are closely related and can be observed in the same Old Testament story I read to you last week, the story of David and Goliath.
Even though a lot of people never read the Bible, this is a classic story known by people all around the world. I wish more would take the time to read and study this epoch story because there are some good lessons to learn from it.
The story begins in 1 Samuel 17. (Click on site if you would like to read). Here we read about two armies that are gathered to fight one another. The army of God, the Jewish army led by King Saul, made camp on one hill in Judah, and the army of the Philistines has made camp on a opposing hill, and there is a valley between them. Both had a goal. The Jews want to get rid of these evil, pagan Philistines from the land God had promise them through Abraham, and the Philistines wanted to rid the land of these invading Jews.
Rather than both armies charging one another they set up camp on their hill and Goliath, a giant 9 foot tall Philistine warrior would stroll down into the valley everyday and challenges the Jews to send one man down to fight him. That went on for 40 days, and Goliath belittles and insults the army of the Living God the whole time. This is where I mentioned the fact that both armies seem to fall into a rut allowing this daily routine to go on and on. Both armies stayed in camp and didn’t do anything other than watch ol’ Goliath do his thing day after day; that is until a teenage boy by the name of David came on the scene.
David was a young man who tended sheep for his father. He loved his nation and he dearly love God and was appalled when he heard Goliath speak one day while delivering supplies to his brothers who were in the Saul’s army.
I don’t think he could believe what he was hearing as this giant of man spoke insult after insult. David was probably also disappointed that there wasn’t one man in the Israeli army who was willing to go down there and kick that Philistine’s butt.So in verse 26, David starts asking around,‘What do you think will be done for the guy who gets rid of this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel?’
And the next thing we read in verse 28 is that David’s brother got really angry with his little brother for even implying that he could kill Goliath.
But David’s strong words are reported to the King, and David is ushered to King Saul. In verse 32, David tells the King,
“Let no one loose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”
In other words, “Let me at him, I’ll take care of this big oaf!”
And do you remember how the king responded?
Let me read what King Saul had to say to David. He said,
“ 33 “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.”
In other words, Saul was saying, “David, you can’t do it! It’s impossible! The man, this giant is a highly skilled fighting machine and you are just a boy. He’ll eat you alive and spit out your bones boy.”
Now all this leads me to the two points I would like to make today regarding things that can sabotage or short circuit getting things done. Somehow these two problems did not affect David and so we see he went on to become very successful and achieve his goal despite these negative traits.
The first point is sometime when you want to get something done or achieve a goal,sometimes you just can’t wait on (or for) someone else to do something to help you achieve that goal. For example, did you ever hear or do this? Well I’m going to lose some weight. But first I need to get my wife to stop cooking all that good food and those yummy deserts.
David knew that even though he had a whole army behind him, he knew he couldn’t count on their help, and so he did what he had to do without them. Sometime if you wait on others you’ll never get anything done. Sometime you have to be the one to make the first move like David before others will join in.
And the second point is; there is always going to be those who say you can’t do something you want to do. The problem is when you let them get the best of you.There may be times when you when you want to do or acquire something that may not be in your best interest but that’s different If you know that you can do what you want to do, that you can achieve your goal like David, be careful not to let someone talk you out of it.
How many times have you had a good idea, or wanted to do something good and a family member or friend knocked the wind out of your sail by telling you, ‘That’s dumb’ or ‘You’re not capable of doing that. Who do you think you are?’
Even though Saul didn’t think David had a chance in this world against Goliath, David had no doubt in his mind that he could take this big man down. Look at what David says next,
Read 17:34-37
“But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
David had two things going for him, #1) Some experience dealing with some big and terrifying savage beasts; a lion and a bear, and #2), He had faith that his Lord and God would deliver him as He had in the past.
After taking on a lion and a bear, Goliath may not have even seem like much of a challenge for him, especially with the Lord’s help. The guy was big, he was weighted down with 125 pounds of armor on his chest alone, not including all the other armor he was weighed down with. He probably moved slow compared to David. Right from the beginning David had no intentions of fighting him hand to hand. His plan was a simple one, to drop him in his tracks with a stone to the forehead. A little unconventional, but he knew that he had a good chance of taking Goliath down, and he did it.
David did not wait around for others to achieve his goal, nor did he let the negative comments of others discourage him. These are valuable lesson for us to learn because everybody isn’t going to think like you, nor have the same ambitions and goals and experiences that you have.
The other day I was reading some interesting advice, written by of all people, a boxing coach by the name of Bud Bilanich, who is also called the The Common Sense Guy, He wrote “Negative people are a drag on your goals, your ambitions and your life andcareer success. They are quick to tell you what you can’t do, offer little encouragement, and hate to see you prove them wrong by succeeding. Hold these kinds of people at arm’s length. Don’t spend time with them. Instead, invest in friendships with positive, upbeat people; the kind of people who not only don’t belittle your ambitions, but do what they can to help you make them a reality.”
Mark Twain said, “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you too can become great.”
I think this is good advice. When you want to do something special or great, something worthwhile, even something good and godly, it is inevitable that you are going to encounter people who can discourage you…. Those people set us on a path to ‘Stinkin Thinkin’.
David did not let everyone else’s lack of ambition or negative comments discourage him. You shouldn’t either. That’s what leadership and leading is all about!
If I know David, he completely trusted in his God, that He would protect him as He had done before. I can’t help but believe he prayed about it which gave him even more strength. He knew what he needed to do was right and good and for the benefit of others. It wasn’t a selfish goal. And I don’t think all our goals should be selfish ones either.
When you know that you are doing things for the right reason, and you believe what you want to do will also benefit others like David did that day, it helps give you the extra strength to press on.
I believe that’s what gave Jesus the extra strength when He needed it, when he allowed Himself to be tortured and then went to that cross where He willingly stretched out His arms to be nailed to it.
His goal was to save us from our sins and make a way so that we can live on after this life and go to God’s spiritual kingdom in Heaven.
It was a great goal, the greatest goal ever, but His friend tried to talk Him out of it, but He knew He had to do it for them… and for us. He willing took to the rap for us, the penalty for everyone of our sins. He was innocent, the most innocent man who ever lived, but He chose to suffer the penalty for our sin. He cared for us that much and it empowered Him to do what He had to do.
Doing what you know is right can become a powerful force in your life.
I pray that when you have a good idea, a dream, and idea that is worthy of accomplishing you won’t feel the need to wait on other, and I pray that you will not let the naysayers discourage you. Remember David and remember Jesus’ example.
If anything, seek out those who will build you up and encourage you, and ask God to bless what you want to do and then do it!
For more lessons click on the following link:http://granvillenychurchofchrist.org/?page_id=566
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