Stay Out of Your Own Way
By: Pastor David Blunt

    Here’s the first rule of winning: don't defeat yourself. Your biggest enemy is you. Don't build a case against yourself. When you find yourself getting in your own way, you're like a refrigerator—slowly gathering ice, which, if allowed to accumulate unchecked, will reduce its effectiveness to nothing. God wisely designed the human body so we could neither pat our own backs nor kick ourselves too easily.

    "I have never met a man who has given me as much trouble as myself" (Dwight L. Moody). The first and best victory is to conquer you. All significant battles are waged within oneself. Don't build a case against yourself.
    
    When you find yourself standing in your own way, you'll always hope vaguely and dread precisely. Talk back to your internal critic. "If you want to move your greatest obstacle, realize that your obstacle is yourself—and that the time to act is now" (Nido Qubein).
    
    Very often a change of self is needed more than a change of scene. Only you can hold yourself back…only you can stand in your own way...only you can help yourself. There’s no one to stop you but yourself.

    Learn five lessons from the pencil:

One: You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to work hand-in-hand with others.

Two: You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, but you'll need it to become better.

Three: You’re equipped to correct any mistakes you might make.

Four: The most important part of you will always be what's inside.

And Five: On every surface you are used on, you must leave your mark. No matter what the condition, you must continue to write.

You must begin to think of yourself as becoming the person you want to be. "Give the man you'd like to be a look at the man you are" (Edgar Guest). Change what you tell yourself. The Bible tells us, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:21NLT).

“No one really knows enough to be a pessimist" (Norman Cousins). Remember, "One of the nice things about problems is that a good many of them do not exist except in our imaginations" (Steve Allan). The fear you fear is only in yourself and nowhere else.
    
    There are two forces warring against each other within us. One says you can’t, the other says with God you can. "It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves" (Sir Edmond Hillary). The basic problem most people have is they’re doing nothing to solve their basic problem. This problem is, don't build a case against yourself.