God Wants You to Go Further

by Joel Osteen

The other day I was thinking about a scene from the movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness." The movie is based on a true story about a homeless father raising his small son on the streets. One day, they were at a public basketball court shooting hoops.

As they were playing, he said to his son, "I don't want you to stay out here and play all day long because you'll probably just be an average player. After all, that's all I was. You're usually just as good as your dad. We have the same genes. So I don't want you to waste a lot of time every day thinking that you'll ever really be good."

You could see that those words took the wind out of the sails of the little boy. He just dropped his ball and walked away feeling down and dejected. After a moment, the father felt convicted about what he had just said. He walked straight over to his son, got down on one knee, looked him in the eyes, and said, "Listen here son, don't you ever let anyone tell you that you can't be something great–not even me."

It's interesting that when people can't do something, oftentimes, they try to put their limitations on others. They have the attitude, "That's as high as I went, so that's probably as high as you'll go." But that's not God's attitude. God wants you to go further. He wants you to rise higher. He sees you excelling in every area. Don't let anyone convince you that you cannot accomplish your God–given dreams. Don't let anyone's negative words stop you from moving forward.

Other people may not believe in you, but God believes in you. And when it's all said and done, He is the one who put the promise in you. He is the great architect of the universe! Before you were born, God laid out a plan for your life. He carefully studied what you would need. He didn't just randomly put something inside of you. He put in you exactly what you need to live a victorious life!

Don't ever let anyone convince you that you're not enough, you're not talented enough, or that you don't have what it takes because God has equipped you to go further and rise higher than you've ever dreamed!