Chapter 10 Recap

The Habit of Excellence

Excellence is:

...doing the very best you can

...not being perfect

...a habit, not an act

...a habit that requires practice and perseverance

Does this match your definition of excellence?  Doing our very best time after time is what counts.  Growing is making progress. Excellence will stretch us and push us past our comfort zones.  

"Do your best and trust God to do the rest"

Help Yourself

Excellence is in the mind of the beholder.  So, how do we set our mind on excellence?  By verbally confessing that we do excellent work, speak excellent words, and think excellent thoughts.  It may not be comfortable but good habits are developed through repetition.  Break the habit of mediocrity by making the right choice.  This will give us the power to change the image of ourselves.

Do Your Best for God

Why do we want to develop excellence?  For ourselves or to bring God glory?  What are our motives?  We will never get to what we want to be unless we truthfully admit where we are right now.   Our desire, our motivation should be to represent His will on earth.  It should not matter what others do or why they do it.  We should never be satisfied to be like everyone else.  Instead we should strive to be the most excellent we can be and do the best we can for God and His glory.

The Rewards of Excellence

Perfection is impossible, excellence is achievable.  God wants us to live life to the fullest, not settling for anything less than the best.  We need to give up the busyness and let go the fears that keep us from enjoying the peace that living a life of excellence will bring.  As we strive for excellence, we gain confidence that we are doing what God would want us to do. Then excellence will become a part of us and we will bear fruit as we do our best for God.

Excellence in Our Thoughts

It is also impossible to become an excellent person if we don't develop an excellent mind. 

Proverbs 23:7 reminds us "For as he thinks within himself, so he is".  Excellence starts on the inside and works it's way out.  We become what we allow our thoughts to be.  Don't allow satan to hijack your thoughts and use your mind as his personal dumping ground!  We control our minds, unless we surrender control to the enemy.  Do not surrender!  Be committed to strive for excellence thoughts and an excellent mind.

Excellence in Our Speech

"Just as we can direct our thoughts, we can also direct our words" - JM

Do our words carry encouragement or discouragement?  Our words have power to cause pleasure or pain.  It is important to choose our words carefully.  To be aware of their effect.  We need to strive to control first our thoughts, then our words.  This is integral in our battle for excellence.  Make the commitment to say nothing if you can't say something worth saying.  Change your words and your life will change.

Treat People With Excellence

Love is the most excellent way to live.  We need to treat others as God treats us.  If we aren't, then we don't know enough about His love.  Love is reflected in our behavior, when we make the decision to believe the best of every one in every situation.  Then our actions and our treatment of others becomes a reflection of Christ's love for us.

thoughts:  

The enemy would love nothing better than to see us settle for mediocrity, to take the easy way out.  Striving for excellence is a battle.  A battle we can win and each victory brings sweet rewards.

1 John 5:4 declares:  "For EVERY child of God defeats this evil world and we achieve this victory through faith."

That means we are the ultimate champions, conquerors over the enemy.  WE can override and supersede anything satan throws at us to keep us from excellence!  Doesn't that excite you?  We CAN win the battle for excellence!

Father,

Thank you for giving us the ability to defeat the evil of this world and have victory in our lives as we strive to develop the habit of excellence. Remind us to verbally confess our excellence thus strengthening ourselves through repetition.  May we always do our very best for you, O Lord and be aware of our motives as we practice excellence.  Thank you for the peace and confidence that being excellent brings.  Show us when our thoughts very off in the wrong direction, taking our words and our excellence with them.  Return our thoughts to You dear Lord and let us speak only those words that are uplifting, encouraging and bring pleasure instead of pain.  Teach us to treat others with excellence and love them as You love us.  Thank you for the amazing way You love us.  In your precious name we pray, So be it!