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Starting Your Best Life Now
A Guide for New Adventures and Stages on Your Journey
By Joel Osteen Faithwords
Copyright © 2007 Joel Osteen
All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-446-58101-1
Chapter One
Dare to Unpack Your Dreams From the time she was a little girl, Tara Holland dreamed of becoming Miss America. After two years as runner-up in the Miss Florida pageant, she was tempted to give up, but she chose instead to focus on her goal. She rented videos of every pageant she could find and watched them over and over again. As Tara watched each young woman crowned a winner, she pictured herself receiving the crown and walking down the runway in victory.
So when Tara was crowned Miss America in 1997, taking that long walk down the runway came as natural to her as breathing. Afterward, a reporter asked her if she was nervous about being on television, in front of millions, accepting her crown. "No," she said, "I wasn't nervous at all. You see, I had walked down that runway thousands of times before." She was simply living out the dream she had practiced so many times in her mind.
SO WHAT ABOUT YOU?
What do you want to do with your life? What are your dreams? If you could write your best life story today, what would it say?
Is your first reaction to hesitate? Perhaps you most often see and describe yourself in terms of past experiences or present limitations. Perhaps you see yourself more in terms of losing or just surviving rather than fulfilling your dreams.
If you've packed away your dreams, dare to unpack them today. It's time to enlarge your vision. Dare to ask God to rekindle those dreams in your heart and mind. He wants to do big things and new things in your life. God wants us to be constantly increasing, to be rising to new heights. He wants to pour out "His far and beyond favor" on you (Ephesians 2:7).
Quiet your heart and receive God's Word: "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'" (Jeremiah 29:11).
Friend, if you will get in agreement with God, this can be the greatest time of your life. With God on your side, you cannot possibly lose. He can make a way when it looks as though there is none. He can open doors that no man can shut. He can cause you to be at the right place, at the right time. He can supernaturally turn your dreams into reality.
Never allow your own wrong thinking to keep you from God's best.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Starting Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen Copyright © 2007 by Joel Osteen . Excerpted by permission.
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