[lead dropcap="yes"]What would happen if you stay rather than leave when things become difficult? Many of us leave before we even see our harvest. Pastor Rich Wilkerson Jr. shared a message on staying the course at our first Heart & Soul of 2017.[/lead]Reading from 1 Corinthians 15:58, Pastor Rich reminded our leaders to stand firm and show up no matter the circumstance. Leaders with vision will always face opposition. In fact, often we find out that the bigger the vision, the bigger the opposition. Being cognizant of that ahead of time, we can brace ourselves to remain planted.

It’s the staying that produces the power.Rich Wilkerson Jr.

Let's look at three practical ways we can stay planted and flourish in the purpose God placed over our lives.

BE MORE COMMITTED TO STAYING THAN YOU ARE TO LEAVING

Often, leaving seems easier, but if we just keep leaving, we’ll never get planted and grow. Some common influencers of leaving are offense, unmet expectation, gossip, and just “not feeling it.”What does being committed to staying look like in a practical sense? It looks like:

• Looking at the good in situations, rather than focussing on the bad.
• Choosing to celebrate what is working instead of criticize what is missing.
• Determining that frustrations are indications to step up.
• Seeing problems as platforms for God to show off.

BE WILLING TO SUBMIT YOUR PREFERENCES TO YOUR PURPOSE

If we get committed to submitting our preferences to a bigger purpose, we get people to come around and know just how serious we are about Jesus, rather than causing division amongst ourselves. We need to focus on what matters most. Our purpose is not to glorify ourselves, it's to bring people closer to Jesus. To stay the course, we submit our preferences and personality. The team is more important than the individual. "Me” kills “we.”

BE PREPARED TO TRUST GOD’S TIMELINE OVER YOUR TIMETABLE

God doesn’t operate on our timetable. We have to be prepared to trust his over ours. We tend to create these expectations about where we think we should be within a specific timeframe. But often, we overestimate what we can do in a year and underestimate what we can do in ten years. Do you realize how much you could be leaving on the table when you quit too soon? Seed plus time will always equal the harvest.Let’s be leaders who encourage each other to stay the course. So many of us spend our lives being transplanted and never get a chance to grow once planted. Until we get planted we’ll never flourish.

VOUS Podcast

Just once is never enough! Listen to this week’s message and more by subscribing to the VOUS Church Podcast on iTunes.Get the Podcast

Subscribe to the VOUS Church Blog

Get VOUS Church blog posts delivered straight to your inbox![wysija_form id="2"]