The manager at an IBM project that lost $10 million before it was scrapped was called into a meeting at the corporate office,
"I suppose you want my resignation?" he asked.
"Resignation, nothing!" replied his boss. "We've just spent $10 million educating you."
Have you ever thought of the amount of time and work, over all the years of your Christian life, the Lord has invested in you?
cI talk a lot about mistakes and failure, as it's precisely those things which give us much of our experience.
Romans 5:3-5 gives us a hint of their value. "...but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed;..."
Spiritually speaking, when we go through tribulation, and fail, as our IBM manager did, it's still counted as experience, and experience leads to hope. We see how the boss was hoping the failure would eventually produce success, maybe on the next project or the one after that. The manager now knowing where he failed.
However, If our IBM manager failed again and again, would his experience lead to hope? I doubt it. Maybe closer to hopelessness, don't you think?
Therefore, our tribulation, sooner or later, needs to produce success, not continual failure. Our trials must lead to hope, for it's that hope that makes us not ashamed. On the other hand, hopelessness leads to depression and life as a surrenderer, not an overcomer. We surrender to the cunning of Satan, defeated.
We can see why most of our journey is built on overcoming and hope, can't we? We must praise God for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who produces the hope of abundant life, and the power to reject Satan's determination to kill, steal and destroy the life we have and for which we aim. Our mind is focussed on overcoming much more often than we think.
God is worth praising through times of pressure when it looks like we're about to fail again. Offering praise and thanksgiving to God are powerful enemies of Satan. He cannot stand before the blood of Christ or His Name. We praise God for the cross and the determination of Christ to go through what He did on our behalf. His suffering produced hope for all humankind, and failure doesn't always need to be the option for generations of believers.
Today's prayer.My Lord, thank you for the blood of Jesus and the power of success it brings over our self-destructive lives. Thank you for the presence of your Holy Spirit, who encourages and leads us through our failures to ultimate success so that we can stand as overcomers on that glorious day.
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