Survival or Significance?

You don't have to settle for survival when God offers significance. 

Philippians 3:12-14 New King James Version (NKJV)

12 Not that I have already attained,or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

1.  When you're in survival mode:

A.  You have low expectations.  

You feel stuck with no hope.  You take the path of least resistance.  

B.  You are self focused.  

You get in self preservation mode.  You check out.    This is the enemy's plan which is to steal, kill, and destroy you.  This world offers survival with zero guarantees.  

God saves us from something so that He can save us for something.  God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody.  God made something out of nothing.  

Romans 4:17 New King James Version (NKJV)

17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;

How to achieve significance: 

1. Confess your weaknesses and celebrate your wins.  

2 Corinthians 12:9 New King James Version (NKJV)

9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2. Prioritizing others and responding to opportunities.  

Take your eyes off yourself.  If God answered your request, would it only benefit you or others?

James 4:2 New King James Version (NKJV)

2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.  

 3.  Invest in eternity.  

Know there is a God.  Have an eternal perspective.  God wants to call you into a life of significance, but this can't happen without knowing Him.  

John 5:24 New King James Version (NKJV)

24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment,but has passed from death into life.

Allen Pedgram, Church of the Highlands