Firmly Committed
Our effectiveness in the Christian life depends on our perseverance during failure.
Many of the world’s finest athletes and leaders have suffered seemingly sidelining blows early in their lives, but they never gave up. Consider these who faced what some people would consider insurmountable odds.
Johnny Fulton was run over by a car at the age of three. He suffered crushed hips, broken ribs, a fractured skull, and compound fractures in his legs. It did not look as if he would live. But he would not give up. In fact, he later ran the half-mile in less than two minutes.
Shelly Mann was paralyzed by polio when she was five years old, but she would not give up. She eventually claimed eight different swimming records for the U.S. and won a gold medal at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.
In 1938, Karoly Takacs, a member of Hungary's world-champion pistol shooting team and sergeant in the army, lost his right hand when a grenade he was holding exploded. But Takacs did not give up. He learned to shoot left-handed and won gold medals in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics.
Lou Gehrig was such a clumsy ball player that the boys in his neighborhood would not let him play on their team. But he was committed. He did not give up. Eventually, his name was entered into baseball's Hall of Fame.
Woodrow Wilson could not read until he was ten years old. But he was a committed person. He became the twenty-eighth President of the United States.
All of these people went on to accomplish great things because they did not allow setbacks to sideline them. As Christians, we will face setbacks. There will be days that the devil seems to be gaining victory in our lives. But that doesn’t mean we have to give in!
It has been said that the greatness of a man is not what keeps him going but what it takes to stop him. Even so, as Christians, we cannot give in to the devil and give up. Our effectiveness in the Christian life depends on our perseverance during failure—our faithfulness.
Have you failed in some area? Perhaps you recently gave into temptation. Don’t become discouraged and give up. God is ready and willing to forgive you and to restore you to fellowship with Him. As someone once said, “It’s not how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get back up again.” Keep going in the face of failure so that at the end of your life you can say, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”
Source: Daily in the Word, February 6, 2009