Excellence

May God give us a passion for excellence

• Success means being the best - Excellence means being your best

• Success, to many, means being better than everyone else - Excellence means being better tomorrow than you were yesterday

• Success means exceeding the achievements of other people - Excellence means matching your practice with your potential

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Excellence is attainable in any area of life and character, it is found in the details of all that we are and all that we do. Excellence is built upon the seemingly small details of every day decisions.

Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.

Booker T. Washington (1856 - 1915) US educator, social reformer


In the discussion of excellence, we must be careful not to confuse excellence with perfection—they are entirely different.

I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection,

Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.

Michael J. Fox

Perfection, fortunately, is not the only alternative to mediocrity.

A more sensible alternative is excellence.

Striving for excellence is stimulating and rewarding;

striving for perfection, in practically anything,

is both neurotic and futile.

Edwin Bliss

You can be born with talent that may lead to greatness, but people are rarely, if ever, born with excellence.  Excellence describes what we do with the talents, gifts and personality that we have been given.

Some people have greatness thrust upon them.

Very few have excellence thrust upon them.

John W. Gardner (1912 - 2002) US writer, government official

The reason for the truth in the quote above is that excellence must be worked into the gifts we have been given. We are not born with it, but excellence makes such a difference in our lives – more so than talent and gifting!

It breaks my heart to see men and women with excellent talent such as actors, professional sports personalities, politicians, artists, musicians, singers, etc. who negate or diminish their gifting because of poor life skills, appalling character and inexcusable behavior.

Real excellence and humility are not incompatible

On the contrary, they are twin sisters

Jean Baptiste Lacordaire

1 Cor. 2:1-2 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.

For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Phil. 3:8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

More on excellence: HERE

7 Things That Will Lead You To Excellence

1. Earnestly desire excellence—know that achieving excellence is a process, it is not a destination. It will take a lifetime to achieve excellence, but set your heart towards excellence.

1Cor. 12:31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.

2. Discern and value what is excellent—

Phil. 1:9–10 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment,

that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ,

verse 10 NLT For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until Christ returns.

Ultimately, we all put our time, money and attention into the things we value. If we value good character, wisdom, love, worship, etc. then we will lay other things aside to attain these goals.

The word, “approve” in verse 10 means to test something like a precious metal is tested. So…test yourself to see if excellent things really abide in your heart.

3. Set your mind on excellent things—

Phil. 3:8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

Phil. 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.

Examine the things you are thinking about - look at the places where your thoughts wander—do they stand the test of these two verses?

4. Know that God is our source and example of excellence—Pss. 8:1; 150:2

If God is excellent, and He created us in His image, then He created us to be excellent and to do accomplish excellent things. We need to imitate Him in thought, word and deed. The Lord is excellent in, and entirely of Himself. This is not the case with us .

The Lord requires that we build in, or add moral excellence (virtue) to our character. It must, therefore, be possible. This is good news.

2 Pet. 1:1–7 shows us the seven-step journey from faith to love where these virtues are woven into our lives. Moral excellence (virtue) is the first attribute that must be added to our faith in order to build towards perfection—love:

            Add to your faith—virtue (moral excellence, goodness, Christian energy)

            Add to virtue—knowledge (knowledge of God, intelligence)

            Add to knowledge—self-control (discipline)

            Add to self-control—perseverance (patience, endurance)

            Add to perseverance—godliness (piety)

            Add to godliness—brotherly kindness

            Add to brotherly kindness—love

“Add” means there is something we have to do. We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save ourselves nor sanctify ourselves, God does that; but God will not give us good habits, He will not give us character, He will not make us walk aright. We have to do that ourselves, we have to work out the salvation God has worked in. “Add” means to get into the habit of doing things…” Oswald Chambers

Part 2: HERE
Excellent Ones: HERE