If we serve a limitless God, why is it that so many times we find ourselves limited?

I have spent a lot of time thinking about this recently, our ability to measure up to the vastness and scope that is available to us in God. God has so much he promises to us, oceans of life and grace and endless mercy. He places His power inside us. Therefore our challenge is that we have to learn how to become less limited.

Daring to be means daring to begin that journey, what is currently limiting you? We can often not even realize we are contained, we have set a limit, just like speed limits we can get used to driving 30 mph and never realise we have the freedom and permission to travel on the same road at 70mph. I have began this year again to look at where I can lift my limits here’s a few areas to suggest to you to pray and examine in your own life.

Limited speech. Maybe your speech has become restricted. Negativity is a way we are limited in our lives. We can have an open door and then close it with our own confession. James 2 talks about the power of the tongue, how it is a rudder to the direction of our lives. If you are moving in a direction that constrains your world, I dare you to look again at your confession. Can you lift the limit on your speech? Direct your path through the power of a tongue that brings life, speaks health and possibility to your dreams.

Limited relationships. We have to dare to connect with people who maybe out of our comfort zones, friends who don’t just comfort us but they can confront and challenge us. Let’s not be limited, the company we keep Proverbs 27 v17 Iron sharpens iron. This speaks of a relationship that removes limitation and sharpens possibilities.

Limited vision. Often we don’t dare to be any more than we can currently see. If our perspective is small,so will our plans and the restricted vision can shrink the destiny God has for you. We have to commit to let God remove any scales from our eyes so we can see beyond the obvious. Maybe you have always looked at your work place with the same eyes, you see no way God could use or promote you, or you see the same disappointments but I dare you to be willing to look again. Maybe He has a new idea, a person for you to reach, an idea that is currently in front of you that doesn’t mean it’s not available to you.

If we are going to understand and enjoy the vastness of the power and belief that God has in us we have to become ready to remove our own limitations

I dare you to look again, speak up and reach out. Take your speed limit up and dare to travel further and faster into the purposes of God.

Enjoy the ride!

Charl

As I sat considering the week ahead, the ‘dare to be’ challenge yet again came flooding into my thinking. The truth is that the leadership it will take to change our cities, homes, schools and communities, is leadership that is willing to ‘dare to be’ on a regular basis.

I love leading in our local church setting and again recently was challenged to not build the usual, average or comfortable. The enemy isn’t afraid to steal, kill and destroy the lives of those around us, so as the light bringers in our world we have got to truly dare to fight back and be the light, salt and change for His kingdom. It isn’t enough to read the word and be able to quote scripture, we have to ‘dare to believe it’ but even more we have to ‘dare to live it’.

In Isaiah 61 we are told that God has anointed us ‘to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners’. The anointing we have been given has an address and it isn’t just our own home. The list requires us to ‘dare to go’ and find the people to which that anointing is meant to minister to, the broken, homeless, hopeless, naked, hungry and the disenfranchised. We have to start by asking: Are these people in my world? Do I know where the hurting are? And am I daring to be the messenger God wants me to be?

I encourage you today to ‘dare to live out scripture’. James 2 tells us ‘it is no good to have faith without deeds’, it goes onto to say in v 23 (Message) ‘it’s the mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named ‘God’s friend’. I don’t know about you but I want to develop a friendship with God like Abraham did and the way we access that is by stepping out and doing what we believe.

Our believing must shape our doing and our actions will connect us to Gods bigger plan. It is your decision to cross the street and stop for the broken that will move your intentions into actions. Like the story of ‘The Good Samaritan’, the hurting man did not need a word, he needed a friend. But if the priest passed by, it is a warning to us all to not think our title is what makes us entitled. It is our reach that God is interested in, like the Samaritan who ‘dared to be kindness’ and ‘dared to be interrupted’. Therefore as we journey on we have to make the same decision to ‘dare to involve’.

So I’m praying that as you lead in your life, whether at home, in business, ministry or beyond, let it be shaped not just by words alone but by actions that will move you from one level of effectiveness into another.

Go for it! All of heaven is cheering you on and so am I!

Charl

I love this quality we can bring as women, and yet I also have become aware that it can work to our determent. Too often my plan has taken the place of God’s master plan and sometimes I have arranged what God can and can’t do, according to my capacity instead of His ability. That’s why I believe this ‘dare to be’ initiative, that began as a whisper in the spirit of two best friends, is now becoming a shout to all other friends. Friends that want to join us on this journey of daring to ask “Have I settled too soon? Have I forgotten how to take a risk? Have I planted all the seeds of potential God placed in me? Is there more I can dare to be, to do, to begin?”

The more I have leant into the word and listened in, the more I have climbed past my agenda and seen God’s perspective, the more I have discovered what God has promised for me to inherit. I don’t want to keep circling the same mountain, or eating the same manna as the children of Israel did. If God says there is a promised land ahead, I want to possess it, but I know it will mean letting go of some of my comforts and ‘daring to be’.

‘Dare to be’ has been born out of our heart to speak value, worth and potential over each woman, to encourage and prayerfully inspire you, to all God has awaiting in your future. It is a call for women to come alongside one another and say ‘I dare to be…’ It’s a place for us to connect, share life and strength, to believe again and dream again. You are incredible! Maybe you have forgotten that, maybe the routine of life has silenced your dream, but my friend you were ‘born for such a time as this’.

If God can use a frightened teenager called Esther to approach a king, or a teenage boy to take down a giant,what can he use you to do? You just have to participate in God’s master plan. Esther had to dare to believe she could approach the throne and live. David had to dare to believe his stone wouldn’t miss the giant. Maybe your dare starts there, believing in the God who can direct your stone, guide your steps, because when you do, just as Esther and David discovered, you will rescue more lives than you knew were possible.

So ladies I dare you to join in this journey, don’t wait, go for it! We would love for you to be a part of the adventure and dare to be with us! So here are a few practical ways you could get involved:

1. Dare to… Join us! Come along, find the nearest event to you at www.daretoberevolution.com if there isn’t one nearby let us know, maybe your church wants to host a future event.

2. Dare to… Add your face to the team of women who are daring to be! By writing what you are ‘daring to’ and posting it on Facebook and Twitter @daretobeevent #daretobe, so we can share it with thousands of others on this journey!

3. Dare to… Bring others, don’t come alone, reach out to daughters, mothers, neighbours, friends! Be someone who dares to invite, include and become one of the Team Leaders (email team@daretoberevolution.com) at ‘Dare to be’.

So from me to you, here is my ‘dare to be’ for this week:

Can’t wait to hear from you and meet you on this journey. If God is for us who can be against us!

Love ya!
Charl

Such a huge question and almost impossible to answer. There are so many things I could say about loving God and serving others, yet as all their eyes were fastened on me, I was reminded of another teacher who was giving advice to his zealous student, the apostle Paul and his apprentice Timothy. When Paul advices Timothy on what to do next he says: ‘Devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to preaching and to teaching ‘ He then goes on to say ‘Do not negelct your gift which was given to you’ ( 1 Timothy 4 v 13 -14)

All too often we want others to grow our life, we want their words to ‘fan our gift into flame’ and yet the best way to grow is to be committed to a work ethic that you will grow your own garden. Jesus at age 12 took himself off to sit in the temple and grow what was within him, he went away from the crowds and was tested and grew in the wilderness. We have to create places in our life that are like our greenhouse, our committed space to get serious about growing our life, a place where we learn how best to grow what has been entrusted to us.

When I was growing up my mum would say ‘Charlotte you can learn the easy way or the hard way!’ Why did I more often that not choose the latter? In life we have the same choice, you can make your learning easier or harder. Its no fun to always learn the hard way, to crash when a accident could have been avoided. So I wonder how do you typically learn? Is it by crisis or by choice? How quick are you to listen? Can you hear the whisper of the Holy Spirit prompting you to change? Or does it have to be a shout to get your attention? I’ve decided to commit to a life that is looking to learn, open to change and not afraid of correction. So I want to encourage you, to grow on purpose. You have seeds that can blossom but also weeds that can strangle them, so we need to make sure we grow deliberately.

My iphone has a autocorrect device which tries to tidy up my spelling mistakes before I press send. In order to grow what is inside us we need to fit an auto correct system to our lives, grow an ability and willingness to monitor the text of your lives. To correct our thinking, repent of our bad attitude, change our behaviour. Not because we have to, but because we want to grow a life that can be used to bless many. Each day think of where you need to prune your gift, where do you need to water. Your life is your garden and therefore what grows in that garden is up to you.

So as I looked at the students about to go into a new season, my final words in answer to their pending question was echoing the apostle Paul’s, as I suggested the best advice may just be to ‘grow your own life’. Others will help grow you, but see that as a bonus. The daily commitment to learn and change, that comes down to you. I encourage you today with this same thought, don’t neglect the gift given to you, you are worth investing in and others are waiting to benefit from the blossoming of your life, so go ahead and grow!

You finally make it, the last downward push of feeding the family, the dog and bathing the kids, bedtime stories, ironing done and you fall into bed where your husband says ‘fancy a cuddle’ and you respond, ‘a cuddle, you have to be kidding, do you know the day I’ve had!’ But hey tomorrow you will get up and start it all again!

Sound familiar? Maybe you don’t have the kids, or the husband but I can guarantee, as a woman, you are multitasking your life and it seems that no matter how great we get at the things we do, there always seems more that we didn’t get to than what we did. What we need is a rest from the treadmill, a pause from the routine, the inserting of some punctuation in the story of our daily routine.

Punctuation is essential to the flow of writing and equally so to the flow of our lives. So I am challenging you my friend, are you punctuating your life well? Here is some punctuation I highly recommend:

1) The Pause

Commas are used to insert a pause in a sentence and in the sentence of our lives. We must allow for the effectiveness of a pause, a ‘selah’ moment. Jesus had only three years of public ministry but they were full of pregnant pauses, he paused for the blind man, the leper and the woman at the well. He was not so concerned with his agenda that he missed the very people he was here to reach.

Many churches, ministries and leaders I have met, need a good pause. One day Jesus paused, looked up a tree and saw Zacchaeus. That pause redirected his whole day. Instead of being with the crowd, he paused for tea with this sinner. I love that about Jesus. Would you have done the same?

A few months ago I went to London by train. On the way down was direct, it was great, no interruptions. After my meetings, I returned home, only this time the train was not direct, it kept stopping at other stations. I found myself getting increasingly annoyed. Why were all these people in my space and why was it taking so long. It was then I felt God whisper, ‘Which is most like your life? Are you a speeding train with no time to stop or are you a vehicle that others can board and be helped to reach their destination?’ I realised I needed to work on my pauses. As a mum I deliberately pause for my kids, to hear them, to understand their desires. I pause for my husband; we insert pauses in our marriage just for us. Create a pause in your daily routine for those you love today.

2) The Full Stop

A full stop ends a sentence so a new one can begin. Many of us can be terrible at ending things well but God needs us to be good at starting and finishing in areas of our life. Our gift to God is not just our willingness to serve him, but our availability, and we have to insert some stops in our world to free up our availability. In Luke 9:57-62 we read about people who were willing but unavailable. I love the way Jesus responds to their statements:

One was keen but ignorant of the cost. We need to educate our availability so we don’t say ‘yes’ with our heart but ‘no’ with our commitment.

Another was willing but wants to go and bury his dead father. Similarly, many of us need to learn to move on from dead relationship, situations and put a full stop instead. Insert a full stop and embrace the new and more productive things God needs you available for. When Naomi gave her daughters-in-law Ruth and Oprah the option to leave her, Orpah decided that for her this was a full stop moment and she left Naomi. Whereas Ruth decided that this was a pause but she was carrying on. I love that Naomi wisely made them add their own punctuation to their lives.

Do you need some full stops on conversations, wrong thinking, relationships? Then insert them, because until you insert a full stop, no new sentence can start.

3 The Exclamation Mark

am a girl that loves to party and I don’t see enough people enjoying their life. I think more exclamation marks are needed! An exclamation mark says, hey stop, wow, look at this! Jesus was always marking moments, from cooking breakfast for Peter and restoring him, to the five loaves and fishes, to the time when he washed the disciples feet. He could have just taught them but he wanted to do something to grab their hearts and mind and impress this moment on them.

I think the church needs to reclaim is its creativity and excitement. David said ‘I will enter with thanksgiving’ and he danced with all his might! So what about you? I have decided any time is a good time to party, at Cherish every year we throw a huge party for people who don’t think they deserve such extravagance. From our baby shower party for pregnant teenage girls, where we lavished them with gifts and unconditional love, to our shoe shower for Barnados children. The point is we added a ‘wow’ to our ‘how’. Add exclamation marks to your ministry, your marriage, your friendship, your kids!

So beautiful lady, before the alarm clock sounds on another day and you race off the starting blocks, please add some planned punctuation to your life. Who can you pause for today? Where do you need to add a full stop? And what moment this week can you mark and enjoy?

Lots of love

Charl