If you are anything like me, you always want to get “there.” The “there” in life changes all of the time but you always want to get “there.” “There” can seem pretty overwhelming sometimes because there seems to be a large distance that separates you from “there.” While it is true that generally you cannot press fast forward and get “there,” you can certainly take the next step. I don’t know what the next step is for you but I am always looking for the next step. I believe, of course, that there are certain things that only God can do in my life. There are times when we just need him to show up and you may be in a place where it seems that you have exhausted every step you could possibly take. One thing that I have found consistently though, is that there is always some kind of next step. The next step for you may just be waiting or praying but this is still a next step.
Another thing that I have found is that God usually doesn’t answer my prayers by revealing the whole plan to me but rather by revealing the next step. I may just get a hunch to call a certain person or read a specific book. I’m not saying that every time I get a random prompting that God is speaking to me, but I do believe that sometimes he is. There have been times when I have made that phone call, read that book, listened to that message, gone on that trip or whatever it happened to be in the situation and it was very clear afterward that taking that step was a part of a bigger plan.
We live in a culture that doesn’t generally capitalize on the power of the next step because we celebrate books and ideas that promise to press fast forward so that we can get “there” as quickly as possible. The reality is that mountains are not climbed by pressing fast forward. Incredible dreams are not accomplished by pressing fast forward. Dreams are accomplished and mountains are climbed by taking the next step. You’re not all of a sudden going to become successful,..you’re not all of a sudden going to become spiritually mature…you’re not all of a sudden going to get in shape…….but you can work out today. You can read your Bible today. You can set up that meeting today. You can….take the next step. You may be surprised that if you’ll start committing yourself to just taking the next step whenever you realize what that step is, that you can cover great distances that way. You may just find yourself looking back someday and realizing that you climbed an impossible mountain by simply deciding a long time ago that you would take the next step whenever the next step presented itself.
