She took me over to her dresser and opened the top drawer.

I was shocked at what I saw.

I once knew an elderly lady who lived through the very tough times of the Great Depression. I would often see her wearing a pair of tattered gloves. I wanted to bless her, so I bought her a new pair of gloves and went to visit with her.

She opened my gift and thanked me. Then she took me over to her dresser and opened the top drawer. I was shocked at what I saw.

Inside the drawer lay SIX other pairs of brand-new gloves. SIX!

She laid the pair I had just given her alongside the other six and closed the drawer.

I couldn’t believe it. She was wearing an old, tattered pair of gloves and not using or enjoying any of those new gloves because she just couldn’t. Her mind was STUCK. Her fear of not having enough had led her to hold onto nearly everything too tightly, even if it meant having six brand-new pairs of gloves sitting in a dresser drawer. She had developed a wrong pattern of thinking and acting that was holding her back in life.

Friend, just like that pair of gloves, God wants to give YOU good gifts. He wants to promote you. He wants you to win in life.

So, what’s holding you back?

What behaviors, habits, and old patterns of thinking and acting are holding you back from being the best you can be and living the life God wants for you?

That’s way too intimidating.

I’m too old.

I don’t have enough money.

I’ve made too many mistakes.

I don’t have the right experience to take that on.

Have you said any of those things to yourself? If you’re like most people, you have. Or maybe you’ve been telling yourself that you’re too young, or too shy, or don’t have the talent, or that you just don’t have what it takes.

I’ve been there. Throughout my life, I’ve had all sorts of reasons not to move forward with the things God was calling me to do. In fact, at one time or another, I’ve probably told myself every one of the reasons I just gave you.

But most of those reasons were really just excuses I kept giving myself because I was afraid . Like the elderly woman with the six pairs of brand-new gloves tucked away in a drawer, I was the one holding myself back with my thoughts. I was the one keeping myself from doing what I wanted to do in life. And I was the one keeping myself from doing what God had called me to do.

Of course, we sometimes need to be patient with our aspirations, but most of the time our problem isn’t that we’re trying to move things ahead too quickly but that, at some point, we adapted to cope with negative situations in life and then we parked there, or we got stuck in that rut .

Second Corinthians 10:4-5 say, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

A stronghold is something you’ve believed for so long that it becomes truth in your life. It becomes the truth even if it’s really a lie.

And if you allow yourself to believe a lie, it might as well be the truth.

Because if you believe something is too intimidating, it will be. If you believe you’re too old, or too young, or too inexperienced, then that’s exactly what you’ll project. If you believe you can’t do something, you’re probably not even going to try to do it.

Moses was a perfect example of this. When God called him to become a great leader in Exodus , we see that Moses had allowed himself to believe lies that were clearly holding him back.

Who am I that I should take this on, God?… I’m a nobody… I don’t have what it takes .

Why would they listen to me ?…   No one listens to me… I’m not a leader.

What’s holding you back from the position—the promotion —God is calling you to?

Believe me, friend, Gary and I know what it’s like to face things that are intimidating and seem so much bigger than you. We even know what it’s like to want to run away!

You probably know some of our story, but years ago, Gary and I lived in poverty .

We went to a church that taught us how God loves us and that He has great things planned for our lives, but we weren’t living it. We weren’t experiencing God’s promises in our lives.

We were barely surviving. All seven of us were living in a small, broken-down, 1800s farmhouse, complete with weeds growing through the broken windowpanes. Our cars were broken-down, too—with bent frames, rusted out floorboards, and mileage at more than 200,000 on each of them.

We had also racked up ten maxed out credit cards, three finance company loans at interest rates of 28%, more than $13,000 owed in back taxes, more than $26,000 owed to relatives, and we had judgments and liens filed against us.

We lived like that for NINE very long years!

Gary was sick during those days too. He was anxious and fearful and miserable. Doctors put him on medication to deal with the panic attacks he was having, but that only seemed to make things worse. Fear consumed his life. It even got to the point where he didn’t want to leave the house. You can imagine how well that worked for his sales business and our marriage.

One day, Gary cried out to God in desperation, and God said, “Take the time to learn how my Kingdom operates.”

We started really learning about the Kingdom of God, and, from that point on, our lives drastically changed.

In less than three years from that day, we were completely out of debt. We went on to start several companies and give hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kingdom projects over the years. We can tell you story after story of how our lives were completely transformed after we learned about the principles of the Kingdom of God and how to apply them.

Ever since then, Gary and I have been sharing our story and the stories of others who have come to understand how the Kingdom works and have seen incredible things happen in their lives as a result.

We want the same for YOU; we want YOU to have story after story of how your life has been transformed by the Kingdom! We want to help you win!

That’s where Team Revolution comes in.

What is Team Revolution ?

Team Revolution is a unique partnership program designed specifically to mentor you to freedom and toward success in the areas that are important in your life, like faith, family, marriage, business, and finances.

Friend, Team Revolution isn’t just about helping you take the next step in a career ; we want to help make this the year you win in every area of your life.

What are you waiting for?

Make the decision RIGHT NOW to make this YOUR YEAR.

Join us as a Team Revolution partner.

The post How to Make This THE Year You Win appeared first on Gary Keesee Ministries.