Tue. Sep 17th, 2024

Break Out of Mediocrity

Shirley Arnold

They are can-do people because they know God is a can-do God.

“More than” people have an all-or-nothing nature. Once when Jesus was teaching in the temple, He observed a poor widow putting her meager offering in the temple treasury. Knowing that she was giving all she had to give, He commended her before His disciples (see Luke 21:3-4).

Certainly, the rich people in the synagogue gave their offerings in greater quantity, but this woman gave hers in greater quality. Throughout the Scriptures, this kind of wholeheartedness is the mark of a “more than” person.

Abraham left everything familiar to follow God to a new land. He even put his son Isaac on the altar out of radical obedience to God’s word.


Ruth gave up everything to follow her mother-in-law, Naomi. The disciples left their livelihoods to follow Jesus.

All of these “more than” people had an all-or-nothing nature when it came to the things of God. Their hearts cried out with the psalmist, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!” (Ps. 103:1, emphasis added).

A Place of Greater Faith
The question Joshua cried out to the Lord after the defeat at Ai is the same question many of us ask: “Why can’t we just settle for less, live in mediocrity and be satisfied with what we already have?”

Our answer is the same as Joshua’s: It’s not in our spiritual nature to settle. God has placed in us a desire for greater things—a desire that reflects His own character.


As Ephesians 3:20 says, God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us” (NIV, emphasis added).

Increase and enlargement call us to a place of greater faith. Let’s take that step and become “more than” believers.

The kingdom will be established as we take by force all that belongs to our God.

Read a companion devotional.



Shirley Arnold and her husband, Steve, are pastors of TLC Family Church in Lakeland, Florida. They have also established The Spirit Life School of Theology, The Secret Place Associated Network of Ministries and The Secret Place Training Facility. She is the author of several books and ministers in churches and conferences around the world.

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