Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
Joshua 1:9
Joshua 1:9
As I sit here sifting through the thoughts in my mind, wondering what to share with you, I am reminded of a speech I heard given by a young woman from the U.S. army. I believe she was speaking to a University graduating class trying to inspire them on the next leg of their journey. She shared with them an interesting story of her journey to becoming the first woman from the army to win the Miss USA pageant. One day, at the age of 19, she met a woman who fired a number of questions at her. She responded to each one giving information, among other things, on her citizenship, her marital status, her age. She was curious and somewhat offended by the questions, but she responded anyhow. At the end of the questions she was surprised when complimented on her beauty and told that she could be the next Miss USA. She met the woman again the following day and was given material to help her prepare for the pageant. She proceeded to enter and unfortunately lost. She entered again and again and continued to lose, about six times in all. As I listened to her constant failure I found it a bit discouraging. I felt she had tenacity though to consistently enter a pageant even though she kept failing to win.
I wondered to myself how many of us would be that persistent? How many of us would have even bothered to try after the first two or three failures or even after the very first failure? She probably had well-meaning friends and family who told her to give up, who reminded her that at least she had tried and that it was better to try and to fail than to fail to try. It can’t be easy holding on and trying when all you are meeting is failure. So, the question to probably ask is this: What in the world was motivating her to keep going back, to keep trying? Simple. The word she had been given. You see, someone spoke a word into her spirit and she ran with it. Without that word she never would have even bothered to enter the pageant in the first place. So, my question to us is this: What word are we listening to? Is it the word of logic that says, “Don’t worry, you are never going to be much more than that so don’t even bother to try?” Or is it that word that is pulling out that hidden potential that is there that no one else can see or even bothers to see? Sometimes God will just send the right word to expose and pull out the potential in you. After her many failures, one day, she called the woman and said, “You told me I could be the next Miss USA.” The woman encouraged her however, not to quit, to keep working, to not give up. Sometime later the woman died from leukemia. A year after the woman’s death and after being persistent, she finally won and became the first soldier to win the Miss USA pageant. She held on to a word from a stranger who knew absolutely nothing about her and after years of trying and failing she finally won. My focus this afternoon isn’t so much that she didn’t give up but that she held on to a “word.” What is the word that you are holding on to? What is the word that God has spoken to you? God’s plans are still to prosper not to harm you to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). Over the years, I recall a few times when someone said something to me or about me that caught my attention. It caught my attention because their words did not seem to match my present ability or accomplishments. I realized that God had allowed them to see the potential in me and they were calling that out. Now mind you, there were even more negatives that I was seeing and hearing, but it was interesting that a word could go past my limitations and failures and choose to expose the potential that God had placed there. I encourage us today to hold fast to that word of hope, that word of encouragement in the face of obvious despair and negativity. I encourage us to hold tightly to that word that calls out from the very depths of our being that potential that God has placed in us even though many others seem to only see in us disappointment, failure, unworthiness. Sometimes all we may have is a word, but I encourage you to hold on to it until God fulfils it in His own perfect timing. Remember, we are all a work in progress, so allow the right words to mold you into the person God has created you to be. If you don’t have a relationship with the God whose Word gives life, I encourage you to ask Him to come into your life and daily as you read His Word you will always find a word to encourage, sustain you and bring you into His destiny for you. I truly admire that young woman’s tenacity, but I realize how powerful, not just any word, but the right word can be.
1 Comment
Melissa Ochoa
26/12/2020 09:55:50 pm
Thanks for reminding me if that spoken word over my own life. Powerful blog Minister Kerry.
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October 2024
AuthorThis blog provides inspirational nuggets inspired by the Word of God and serves to encourage and motivate Christians in their Christian walk. |