Five things winners never say.

By John Stallings

It’s not a huge revelation to most of us that words are powerful things. Jesus had much to say about words; especially His words. Luke 4:32 says…..
His words were with power. He said His words were… spirit & life in John 6:63 & in Matthew 24:35 He also said ….His words would never pass away. He was right wasn’t He? Peter said in John 6:68….thou hast the words of eternal life. Jesus said in John 12:48…the word that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day. In John 14:26 Jesus said… the Holy Spirit would bring to remembrance the words I have spoken to you.

Colossians 4:6 says-Let your speech be always with grace & seasoned with salt that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man,

Most of us would be helped enormously by streamlining our vocabulary, putting some good things in & taking out some words & expressions that are limiting our effectiveness. Jesus said in Matthew 5:37…let your communications be yea, yea & nay, nay for anything whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Jesus said in Matthew 12:34….out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

I’d like to share with you what my experience has taught me that winners never say. First, winners never say:

1. I CAN’T

There would be limited use of this expression in our vocabulary if we were saying things like, “I can’t do that, it’s against my convictions,” or “I can’t go to the mall & spend a lot of money, I’ve already spent too much.”

But other than a few statements like that, winners never say “I can’t.” I can say two things for sure right here; God will on occasion stretch us to cause us to grow in our capacity, & if He stretches us, that means He knows we can handle the new capacity. Philippians 4:13 Paul says….I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

The boxer Mohammad Ali hired a man named Bodini Brown to do nothing but follow him around & tell him he was the greatest & that there was nothing he couldn’t do. A Christian doesn’t have to go to all that trouble because we already have the indwelling Holy Spirit to do that 24/7-365. The Holy Spirit builds us up in our faith & is constantly taking the things of God & revealing them to us. He gives us power to do what we couldn’t do on our own.

We also get encouragement from each other which is the main reason we are admonished not to forsake meeting together so that we can encourage each other. Hebrews 10:25.

Nowadays, we could all legitimately stay home & let our preacher preach to us via streaming video on the internet, or listen to tapes & watch videos, but God has asked us to meet together because He knows how important it is to interact with those of like precious faith.

To put it succinctly, the only time a Christian should use the words “I can’t, is when they are followed closely with the words—“but He can, & I’m with Him.” Another thing winners won’t say is;

2. I’ll TRY

Before we take on an assignment we could very well say “Let me pray about it.” We might say “I need to think about it some more.” If it’s something someone wants us to do we are obligated to say those things because obviously we can’t do everything we are asked to do. If you ask me to do something, I have to ask when you want it done & then I can tell you if I can do it. I may be committed elsewhere. BUT, if we’ve committed ourselves to do something, we shouldn’t go into it with an “I’ll try” attitude.

It’s not a --YES---I’ll TRY---NO option. It’s either yes---or---no---or- I’ll do it.

If we’re always saying “I’ll try,” then trying becomes the new standard of success for us. I can tell you right now that’s beneath your dignity as a child of the High God of heaven in whose image you are made.

We can’t marshall up some skill we don’t have by trying harder. We can either do something or we can’t, if we can’t we should never say “I’ll try.” I wouldn’t go out to the golf course & play Tiger Woods & say, “Well I’m not very good but I’ll try.” My answer to that invitation would be, “I’m not interested in doing that because getting out there & trying real hard isn’t going to hack it.” Then I can bring my Yea-Nay option into play.

If I were invited to go out to the airport & fly a wide-bodied Jet with 300 people on board to Paris, I would decline---nay--- because I know if I sit down at the controls & try hard to fly the plane, that won’t help a bit. That’s one flight that will end in tragedy. The skill of flying a huge jet across the Atlantic can’t be pulled out of me no matter how hard I try. I must first be trained to fly. No one wants to hear a professional pilot say, “I’ll try to stay awake & fly this thing.”

If I say to the people I preach to, “I’ll try to make it Sunday morning,” they may as well go ahead & get someone else to preach because “I’ll try” is very scary. The last words they would want to hear are “I’ll try.” It’s either, Yea, Nay or-- I’ll do it. When I say “I’ll do it, -- that means if I’m alive & not in the hospital, I’ll be there, period. If my car breaks down on the way, I’ll call you to come get me but when I’ve given my word, I’ll be there. I had the option of saying nay, but I gave up that option so now I’m duty bound to be there. A winner will never say;

3. I’ll do it later

Now we’re looking at the giant of procrastination. If it’s worth doing its worth doing now, today. Every time I read the story in Exodus 8 about Moses, Pharaoh & the plague of frogs, I’m amazed. Pharaoh asked Moses to remove the frogs from the land & then Moses asks him when. Pharaoh thought a moment & answered, tomorrow. The man had frogs almost coming out his ears & they could be gone immediately but Pharaoh says, take them away tomorrow. The answer should have been NOW! I guess Pharaoh wanted one more night with the frogs.

Many people won’t do things now because they’re afraid of failure. Many people seem to want to stay in college forever because they’re always changing their major. It’s as if they want to hang onto college life forever & never taste life in the real world. They don’t want to do anything now, but later. Another reason people procrastinate is because they see a big job & it scares them so they never get around to tackling it. I’ve learned a way to help with that & it’s what I call the Salami technique. If you look at a big Salami roll it looks foreboding. Who would want to try to chow down on that? What you do is get a knife & slice it up, that way you can eat it. I say you, because I can’t stand Salami. Large jobs can be challenging so instead of procrastinating, cut the job up into manageable pieces & get on with it.

If there’s a phone call I dread to make, I start by getting the phone number & putting it where I can see it. I’ll be sure & make that call if I can’t say, “well I don’t even have the number handy.” Any preacher knows that if he waits until Saturday to get his Sunday sermons, it’s just too stressful. The way we have to do it is start early in the week & by Saturday; most of the work is done. Now the preacher can be relaxed because all he has to do is preach his message. Winners never say:

4. I have a problem.

NO! You don’t have a problem you have an opportunity. Problems do exist but we shouldn’t see them as problems, we should see them as possibilities. I don’t like problems. They’re too hard to solve. That’s one reason I got away from math as soon as I could because they were always talking about “math problems.” Can you imagine living life in a profession where you were always faced with problems? It makes my blood run cold. And it’s so unnecessary. The problem with a problem is that it puts things on the negative side of the ledger. When you call it an opportunity, now you’ve got a chance to dream, plan & think outside the box.

When Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, he didn’t see it as a problem; he saw it as an opportunity. In Genesis 50:20 he told his brothers that what they saw as something destructive to him, God saw it & helped him to also see it as an opportunity to save the world from starvation. We should never solve problems but rather set goals. Now that’s easy.

Let’s look at DIETS; the old “problem” of losing weight. I can tell you without equivocation that it’s impossible to lose weight & keep it off by dieting. I’ve tried it & it doesn’t work. You put it all back on & the body then punishes you by adding a few more pounds for making it suffer.



Not only that; when you say “I’m losing weight” you’re using the word lose. Nobody likes to lose. It sounds too much like “loser.” Who wants to be a loser?

Let’s look at it another way. Obesity is the world’s biggest health problem. You don’t want to die, right? Do you want to feel good? Do you want to look good? Do you want to be able to walk without looking like you’re trying out some funny new dance? Do you want your blood sugar to normalize? Do you want your blood pressure to be in the normal safe range? Do you want your heart to work less & do you want to live longer? Now you’re talking. Make a plan, find out what foods will let you do all those things & write them down & carry the list with you. This list is going to give you all the above things. You’re not on a diet for heavens sake; you’ve got a new goal that’s going to turn your life around. Believe me this isn’t a problem.

When you go into a restaurant, what’s on the Menu isn’t important. What’s on your food list is the only thing that’s important to you. You aren’t dieting, you’re pursuing your goal of a total makeover & it’s not going to be expensive. You’re gonna look & feel good baby!

Let’s look at DEBT! There are places that will charge you thousands of dollars to get you out of debt, maybe even in your lifetime. But you aren’t aiming at being debt free; you’re aiming at having a life that’s stress free. When the phone rings you are tired of disguising your voice to sound like a Chinese person. He no here! He no live here now. He gone!

Are you tired of living like that? Well you have to sell yourself on a stress free way of life where you can walk with your head up & aren’t afraid to go to the mailbox. When that goal gets firmly established, you can trust yourself to go to the Mall & it won’t be long until you’ll be out of debt. Let me say a few words about goals.

a. Make your goals specific.
b. Make your goals realistic.-You’re not going to lose 60 pounds in one month.
c. Have long-term & short-term aspects to your goals.
d. Be flexible. You may want to add or subtract things as you go.
e. Make your goals measurable. If it’s getting weight off, nail your fat-boy britches on the wall (in the basement.) One lady put a picture of a beautiful shapely girl on her refrigerator so that when she raided it at midnight she’d see what she wanted to look like. It worked like a charm & she lost 10 pounds in a month. Her husband however gained 20 pounds.

5. It’s not my fault.

That’s a victim mentality & God doesn’t want us to walk as victims but victors in life. Start taking more & more responsibility for what happens in your life. You may not have caused your employee to make a mess of your business but you hired the employee. You may feel your spouse is your problem but you married them. Start saying things like, “I own this.” “No more excuses.” These are empowering words. There’s’ one thing great about it, if my brain got us into this, my brain can get us out of it.

Here are a few signs that a person has slipped into victim thinking.

They are focused on the past.
They worry about how things should be.
They blame others for their problems.
They feel they have no control over anything.
They often say “If only” & “what if.”
They feel they’re being picked on.
They feel they’re pawns in life’s game.

I think one of the finest examples of a person who refused to become a victim is The Prodigal son in Luke 15:17-18. Listen to his words & notice he didn’t say, “Oh, if only the famine hadn’t come.” He said; …..How many hired servants of my father have bread enough & to spare & I perish with hunger. I will arise & go to my father & say unto him, Father I have sinned against heaven & before thee.

This young mans willingness to take the blame for what he’d done & ask forgiveness made him a winner. We live in a world that wants & needs to make victims out of people but God has something far better for us & that is life as a winner. Christ bought that victory for us at Calvary. -------John