I’m sure you are aware that first impressions are lasting impressions. Yet are you also aware that first impressions can distort your understanding of a situation? Let me give you an example.
Give someone 5 seconds to estimate the answer to the following math problem:
8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 =
Give someone else 5 seconds to estimate the answer to this problem:
1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 =
Although the two sets of numbers are identical, the two answers will be quite different. When researchers gave these two problems to a group of subjects, the average answer guessed for the first problem was 2,250. The average answer for the second was 512 [The correct response for both problems is actually 40,320]
Why was the estimate for the first string of numbers more than four times higher than the estimate for the second string? The first impression was different in each case. If 8 is the first number it is common to assume a higher result than if the first number is a 1.
I’d like to draw a couple of thoughts from the numbers above. Here’s the first thought – Don’t wait for 7 others before you get started. Begin with one, yourself, right now, and you’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish when you take the first step. So, what is it that God wants you to do right now?
• Ask Jesus to save you and to come into your life to take charge?
• You’ve been saved but now you need to follow the Lord in baptism?
• You’ve put off joining First Baptist, but now is the time to make that step?
• Get involved in Sunday School?
• Begin tithing?
• Witness to your neighbor?
• Attend Sunday and Wednesday night services?
• Start a daily prayer time with the Lord?
• Sign up for our summer mission trip
• Step up and take a leadership role in our church
Whatever it is don’t wait any longer. The best results come when you begin with one – yourself – right now!
A second thought is this – God is in the multiplication business. On our own we can accomplish a lot:
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 = 36
Yet remember what Jesus did through His disciples? On their own they could only come up with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. By His touch they were able to feed 5,000 men plus women and children [8,000 to 10,000 people]. So with God we accomplish more.
1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 = 40,320
Will you ask God to take your distorted view [tremendously low] and give you His view of what He can accomplish through you [tremendously high]? Will you take the first step TODAY, asking for His multiplication power, and move on out into greater service and accomplishment for the Lord?
Offering my lunch to the Lord, Pastor Steve
