Don’t Settle for Less Than What God Has Promised You

Settling refers to lowering your standards, compromising, to decrease your desire for something or to give in to the demands of someone else.

My guest, Michael Lombardo, and I talk about this subject of our inheritance in God and not settling for less than God has for us on this episode of Everyday Discernment on the Charisma Podcast Network. We should pursue His glory in our life. Anything that is from God, we should want it! This includes the spiritual gifts and intimacy with God.

Lombardo says, “We hunger for what we feed on.” Are you hungry for more of God in your life?

Two Reasons to Avoid Settling

1. God has given you a calling.

I believe God gives each and every one of His children passion and innate abilities that can be used for His kingdom. Whether we utilize them and refine them is another thing. I am not talking about a skill set that brings us glory, but ability within us that we use for God’s glory is a beautiful thing.

It can be as simple as someone who enjoys talking to people visiting a prison to minister to those there. It can be someone who is talented at art, making beautiful paintings with symbolism and beauty of God’s creation. It can be someone who is great with children and can teach and speak on their level, who serves on Sunday mornings, teaching the next generation about Jesus.

2. Difficulty is not an indicator that you should settle.

Our journey to do the will of God will be met with difficulty. Jesus said that “You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world” (John 16:33, CSB). Hardship on the narrow path should not deter us from our goal. Knowing where we are going and who we are serving should be motivation enough to know that the rewards (whether in this life or in the life to come) are worth the effort.

Two Reasons for Settling

1. God has told you to.

It’s hard to give up on our dreams and desires, but if God tells us to, we need to subject ourselves to the fact that He knows all outcomes and sees what is best for us.

If you look at Moses, he was not allowed to enter the promised land. David was not allowed to build the temple. Sometimes you cannot see your dreams fulfilled; you simply start the movement for the next generation to continue forward.

Many times the plans we have made never involved the Lord to begin with. By the time we eventually get around to asking Him about it, it is usually when things are starting to fall apart.

Proverbs 16:9 (NLT) says that “we can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.”

It’s better to listen to God at some point during the process than to ignore Him completely and face the consequences that He was trying to prevent you from experiencing. We can trust that if we give up our dreams when God tells us to, that God will replace them with something far greater than we had envisioned in our human thinking.

2. You are not focused on the right priorities.

God first, then spouse, kids, career and everything else is a good list of top down priorities. When something tries to move up the ranking, we need to make sure we keep it where it belongs. Spirit-led discernment might be telling you to say no to something that will disrupt your priorities. We should settle in one thing if it helps us thrive in a more important thing. {eoa}