God Has More in Store!

by Joel Osteen

Todd Jacobs dreamed of starting his own computer software busi­ness, but when he and Amy got married, he took a mundane job just to pay the bills. Then the baby came along and their budget went out the window, along with Todd’s dreams.
At first, the shelving of his dreams didn’t bother Todd, but before long, he and Amy both recognized the unspoken yet very real resent­ment seething just below the surface of every conversation about money and every decision about their future. Ironically, when an op­portunity arose for Todd to develop software for a well-known, estab­lished company, working along with one of his best friends, he turned it down. “I’m not talented enough,” he said. “I’ve been away from the business world too long.”
“Todd, are you sure?” his best friend asked. “This is a tremendous opportunity. You can start your own company, help write software for the parent company, and you can even make some extra money from royalties. Are you sure you want to pass on this job?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Todd replied. “I can’t afford to take a chance. My job doesn’t pay a lot, but it’s steady work. I’d better stay right where I am.”
Like Todd, many people miss pivotal opportunities in their lives every day because they’ve grown accustomed to the status quo. They expect nothing better. God is opening a new door for them; all they have to do is step through it, yet regrettably they back away from God’s blessings. Why? They refuse to make room in their own thinking for the new things God wants to do in their lives. When a great opportunity comes along, rather than latching onto it, launching out in faith, and believing for the best, they say, “Well, that could never happen to me. That’s just too good to be true.”
Unfortunately, what you will receive is directly connected to how you believe and what you expect. If you want God to do the extraor­dinary, then you must start believing Him for bigger things.
Like Todd, you may be thinking, I’ll just work at this same job, in this same position, for the rest of my life. After all, this is all I know how to do.
No, quit limiting God. He may want to open another opportunity or a better position for you. God may intervene in your situation, replacing your supervisor so you can be promoted. One day, you may run that en­tire company! Once you begin expecting more, a second key element to enlarging your vision is believing that God has more in store for you!
There’s an old story about a little frog that was born at the bottom of a small, circular well, similar to those you might see at a typical rural farm. He and his family lived there, and he was content to play in the water, swimming all around that little well. He thought, Life doesn’t get any better than this. I have all that I need.
But one day, he looked up and noticed the light at the top of the well. The little frog became curious, wondering what was up there. He slowly climbed up the side of the well. When he got to the top, he cau­tiously peered out over the edge. Lo and behold, the first thing he saw was a pond. He couldn’t believe it. It was a thousand times bigger than the well. He ventured farther and discovered a huge lake. He stood there gazing in amazement. Eventually, the little frog hopped a long way and came to the ocean, where everywhere he looked, all he could see was water. He was shocked beyond measure. He began to realize how limited his thinking had been. He thought he had it all back in the well, but all he really had was a drop in the bucket compared to what God wanted him to enjoy
God’s dream for your life is so much bigger and greater than you can imagine. If God showed you ever thing He had in store for you, it would boggle your mind. So many times we’re like that little frog. We’ve been enclosed in our own little well. It’s been our comfortable environment. It’s how and where we were raised. It’s all we’ve ever known, a certain level of living, a certain way of thinking. All the while, God has so much more in store for us.
Go a bit further than you’ve gone before. Dare to dream a little big­ger. Look out over the edge like that little frog. God has oceans He wants you to enjoy.

ARE YOU LIMITING GOD?
When God puts a dream in your heart, when He brings opportu­nities across your path, do you step out boldly in faith, expecting the best, moving forward with confidence, knowing that you are well able to do what God wants you to do? Or do you shrink back in fear, and say, “That’s too big for me. I’m not qualified. I’m not able. I could never do that.”
God wants to do a new thing in your life. But you’ve got to do your part and get outside that little box. Start thinking big!

Many people settle for too little. “I’ve gone as far as my education will allow me to go.
“I’ve gone as far in my career as I can go. I’ve hit the peak. I’ll never make any more money than I’m making right now.
Why? Your job is not your source. God is your source, and His cre­ativity and resources are unlimited! God may give you an idea for an invention, a book, a song, or a movie. God can give you a dream. One idea from God can forever change the course of your life. God is not limited by your education or lack of it. He’s not limited by what you have or what you don’t have. God can do anything, if you believe. He can do anything, if you will simply stop limiting Him in your thinking.
A woman recently wrote to Victoria and me, telling us the story of how she received a check in the mail from a relative who had died and left her $90,000. She had never met this man and didn’t even know they were related.
As she told us her story, I couldn’t help smiling and thinking, God, give me some relatives like that!
Seriously, I was thrilled for the woman. She had believed for more, and the windfall was part of God’s answer.
You can start expecting increase, as well. Not merely financial in­crease, but you can start expecting supernatural promotion in every area of your life.

Break the Curse

Too often, we get comfortable with where we are, and we use that as an excuse to remain in mediocrity “My parents were poor,” we say with a pout. “Before them, my grandparents were poor. Nobody in my family has ever amounted to much, so I guess I won’t either.”
Don’t believe that lie. God is a progressive God. He wants you to go further than your parents ever went. He wants you to be the one to break out of that mold. Maybe you were raised in a negative environ­ment. Everybody around you was negative and critical, depressed, down in the dumps, and discouraged. No doubt, you’re tempted to use your negative upbringing as an excuse to live the same way. But you can be the person to change your family tree! Don’t pass that junk down to your children and keep that negative cycle going. You can be the one to break the curse in your family. You can be the one to raise the bar. You can affect future generations by the decisions you make today.
My dad came from the poorest of the poor families. His parents were cotton farmers, and they lost everything they owned in the Great Depression. My grandmother worked fourteen to fifteen hours a day washing people’s clothes, earning ten cents an hour. Many nights, they’d come home and not have enough food to eat. Daddy often went to school hungry, with holes in his pants and holes in his shoes.
They were good people, but nobody in our family line had ever amounted to much. They lived under a curse of poverty and defeat. But one day, at seventeen years of age, Daddy committed his life to Christ, and God put a dream in his heart to preach.
Certainly, the odds were against him. He came from the wrong fam­ily in the wrong part of town. He didn’t have any money, and he had very little education. In the natural, he had no future, no hope. But God is not limited by environment, family background, or present cir­cumstances. God is limited only by our lack of faith.
Daddy held that dream close to his heart. He had a hope that one day he was going to rise above that mentality of defeat and mediocrity Not surprisingly, everybody around him tried to discourage him. They said, “John, you’re never going to make it out there on your own. You better stay here with us and pick cotton. That’s all you know how to do. Stay here where it’s safe.”
But I’m so thankful that Daddy didn’t listen to all the naysayers. He wasn’t satisfied with where he was. He didn’t get stuck in that rut of defeat and mediocrity. He refused to limit God. He believed that God had more in store for him. And because he stayed focused on that dream and was willing to step out in faith, because he was willing to go beyond the barriers of the past, he broke that curse of poverty in our family Now, my siblings and I, and our children, grandchildren, even our great-grandchildren, are all going to experience more of the goodness of God because of what one man did.
We affect generations to come with the decisions that we make today If you’re not experiencing God’s abundant life, let me challenge you to believe for more. Don’t merely sit back and accept the status quo. Don’t travel the road for the next fifty years and end up at the same place you’re at today. Make a decision to rise out of that rut. Don’t simply settle for what your parents had. You can go further than that. You can do more, have more, be more.
I was blessed to be raised in a good family I had great parents who were fine role models. My mom and dad touched people’s lives all over the world. But as much as I respect what my parents have accom­plished, I’m not going to be satisfied to simply inherit what they have, to do what they did. God wants each generation to go further than the previous generation. He wants each generation to be more blessed, to experience more of His love, goodness, and His influence in the world. He doesn’t want you to stay where you are.
When Daddy passed away in 1999, and I took over as pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, people often approached me and asked, “Joel, do you really think you can keep it going? Do you think you can hold down the fort? You’ve got some real big shoes to fill.”
I understood what they meant, and I appreciated their comments because they loved my dad and he was a great leader. Beyond that, few other churches the size of Lakewood had ever survived for long after the loss of the founding senior pastor, and our local press was quick to point out the low chances of our success. But none of those matters worried me, because I knew God doesn’t want one generation to shine, and then the next generation to fade into obscurity God wants each generation to increase.
Furthermore, I knew I didn’t have to fill my dad’s shoes. I had only to fill my own shoes. I just had to be the person God made me to be. When I first became the leader, people sometimes asked me, “Joel, do you think that you will be able to do as much as your dad?”
I never answered arrogantly, but I always would say, “I believe I’m going to do more than my dad.” That’s just the way our God is. He’s a progressive God. And I know my dad would be displeased and dis­honored if I were to limit myself to what he had done, or to stay right where he was. My dad brought our family from nothing to where it is today. When he started ministering, he knew little about the Bible. No­body in his family had ever been a church-attender, much less a Bible teacher. When Daddy first started out, he once preached an entire mes­sage on Samson, and at the end of his sermon, Daddy realized that he had been calling the hero of the story “Tarzan”!
But Daddy got better and, as a result, I have inherited a multitude of advantages. I have Daddy’s life from which to draw inspiration, ex­perience, and wisdom. Nevertheless, I say it humbly, but I believe I’m going to do far more than my dad was able to do. And I believe my son is going to do far more than I have, and his son will one day do far more than all of us combined.
Friend, don’t ever get satisfied with where you are. Maybe you came from a family like my dad’s, where they didn’t have much materially. Or maybe you came from a family with tremendous wealth, prestige, and position. Regardless, you can experience more than the generation preceding you.
Maybe you hail from a long line of divorce, failure, depression, mediocrity, or other personal or family problems. You need to say, “Enough is enough. I’m not going to pass these negative attitudes down to my children. I’m going to break out of this cycle and change my expectations. I’m going to start believing God for bigger and bet­ter things.”
That was the attitude of Phyllis, one of our members at Lakewood. When Phyllis was sixteen years old, she got pregnant and had to leave high school. Her dreams were shattered, and she was heartbroken. She rented a cramped, small apartment in which to live and raise her son. But she soon realized it was never going to work out. She didn’t have enough money, and she was living off handouts. Eventually she had to go on public assistance—welfare. She was barely surviving in poverty, defeat, and despair.
But Phyllis refused to live in mediocrity. She said, “Enough is enough. I refuse to pass this lifestyle down to my children. I’m going to make a difference with my life. I’m going to fulfill my God-given destiny I’m going to be the person God wants me to be.” And she rose up and started believing for bigger and better things. She started ex­pecting the supernatural favor of God. She got rid of her former thoughts of defeat and failure. She developed a “can-do” mentality. When times were tough, she didn’t give up. She just kept on keeping on. She did her part, and God did His.
Phyllis got a job at a school cafeteria collecting meal tickets. The job paid minimum wage, and Phyllis was thankful for it. But Phyllis wasn’t satisfied with that. She knew God had better things in store for her. She had a bigger dream for her life. She didn’t just sit back and ac­cept the status quo. She decided she wanted to go back to school, and she got her high school diploma. But she still wasn’t satisfied.
She wanted to go to college. She worked all day at the school and then attended college classes at night. In just four years, she graduated from college with honors. But Phyllis still wasn’t satisfied. She went back to school and got her master’s degree.
Today, she’s reaping the rewards of that effort. She’s not on welfare anymore; she is a principal in that same school district where she used to collect meal tickets. She, too, broke the curse of poverty and lack in her family Phyllis says, “I went from welfare to faring well!”
You can do something similar. Stop settling for mediocrity. Quit set­tling for the status quo. God has more in store for you. Much more! Dream bigger dreams. Enlarge your vision. Live with expectancy Make room in your thinking for the great things God wants to do. Your best days are ahead of you. God wants to do more than you can even ask or think, but remember, it’s according to the power that works in you. Stir yourself up; step out of complacency; don’t be sat­isfied with past glories.
God has more in store for you! But if you are going to believe for bigger and better things, you will have to break some barriers of your past. Come on; I’ll show you what I mean. This is going to be exciting!