Today’s Thought : It’s too late

With Bishop Ronald K. Powell

We are so “time conscious”. We allow time to limit us and define for us what we’re capable of; or what God can do in our lives.

It’s often ingrained in us that it’s too late to change; too late to start a new career; too late to save your marriage; too late to recover from a major mistake; too late to start over again; too late to be forgiven or have a second chance.

Perhaps you just started with us in our FAST FROM WRONG THINKING, and you think it’s too late to get involved and really see the changes you’re looking for.

The truth is: IT’S NEVER TOO LATE!

We need to replace this wrong thinking with right thinking. I hope you’re seeing the pattern that the thoughts we’re dealing with are the ones that immobilize us. They are thoughts that get us to cave in and stay the way we are; to accept things the way they are. THIS IS what we’re going after – mindsets that limit us; and keep us from the victory that God has for each of us.

When you realize that it’s not too late, you have hope. You take action. You move forward. You stop thinking that it’s futile and useless to do the right thing.

It’s not too late…

* to turn your finances around.

* to recover from a tragedy or mistake

* to truly surrender your life to God and begin again!

* to take better care of yourself

* to apologize

* to start saving

* Maybe you have developed a habit or dug yourself into a real bad hole. it’s not too late to get out of it.

* to change the way you see yourself.

1. UN-DECIDE that it’s too late for these things to change. Un-decide that you can’t recover! Un-decide that the damage is irreversible.

2. Meditate on the fact that God created time, and He can multiply it.

The earth and sun stood still for Joshua 10:12-13, “And Joshua spoke to the Lord at Gibeon… and said in the sight of Israel, ‘Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon in the valley of Aijalon’. So the sun stood still and the moon stopped.”Joshua had control over time, for God’s purpose. We need to start thinking that way – we have control over time. It doesn’t control us!

3. Today, think about the great cloud of witnesses, for whom it wasn’t too late:

* It wasn’t too late for Abraham to be a father at 99 years old.

* It wasn’t too late for Sarah to be a mother at 90!

* It wasn’t too late for Peter after he denied the Lord 3 times.

* It wasn’t too late for Paul after he had persecuted the church and killed other Christians! God later used him to write two-thirds of the New Testament after the book of Acts.

* It wasn’t too late for the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11), the woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5:25-34), or the man who was lame at Bethesda pool for 38 years. (John 5:1-10)

* In business, it wasn’t too late for Ray Kroc, who at the age of 56 started the first McDonald’s… (How did that work out for him?)

4. Meditate on God’s mercy and grace.

Lamentations 3:22 says, “His mercy is new every morning…” Hebrews 4:15 says, “Come boldly to the throne of grace to receive mercy and grace in your time of need.” Mercy is when God doesn’t give us the judgment that we DO deserve. And “grace” is when God gives us the goodness that we don’t deserve.

5. Adjust your thinking here: Stop making excuses for why it’s too late.

God doesn’t listen to our excuses. Realize, HE IGNORES OUR EXCUSES, and EXPECTS us to believe in His faithfulness. We claim we have low self-esteem or a disability. (Moses wasn’t confident and he had a speech impediment, but God gave him chance after chance to be used by Him to deliver God’s people.)

6. Meditate on the verse in 2 Timothy 2:13, “Even when we are faithless, He remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself.”

7. Ask God for more time, and another chance.

Hezekiah did in 2 Kings 20:1-6. When Hezekiah turned back to the Lord, and asked for a second chance, God told him, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Surely I will heal you…And I will add to your days FIFTEEN YEARS.” If he did it for Hezekiah, He will do it for you!

THINK IT & SAY IT

I believe that it is not too late for things to improve in my life, and radically turn around.

I believe in the God of 2nd chances. I can recover and there is nothing that God won’t turn around in my life.

It is a fact that God created time and He can multiply it for me. I am not controlled by time. By God’s grace, I control it!

It wasn’t too late for Abraham or Sarah, Peter or Paul. It wasn’t too late for the woman caught in adultery, and its NOT TOO LATE FOR ME.

I adjust my thinking, and accept that God ignores my excuses and inabilities – but He gives mercy and grace in my time of need. He is faithful even when I haven’t been.

I think on His goodness and dwell on His kindness. God is no respecter of persons, therefore if He multiplied time back for Joshua and Hezekiah, He will do it for me!