Arise from the dead...

We all have a number of visions and ideals, but sooner or later we find we have no power to make them real. We can't do the things we long to do, and we are apt to settle down to the visions and ideals as dead, and God has to come and say
"Arise from the dead."-Eph. 5:14

God does not give us overcoming life. He gives us life as we overcome. WE must take the initiative! He told the man with the shriveled hand to stretch it out, and only when he took the initiative did his hand heal.