Day 154: Faith...Takes A Licking And Keeps On Ticking
Read: 2 Peter 1:1 - 9
Let us go back to a time, years and years ago, when Timex had this wonderful slogan about their watches: "Timex…takes a licking and keeps on ticking.” The
big idea was simply that no matter what you did to a Timex watch, it
would just keep working. If I remember correctly, they even had a
commercial that showed a barren wasteland after a nuclear explosion.
Lying on the ground was a Timex watch…ticking away! I so remember an old
50's live television commercial where one of those watches was wrapped
around the propeller of an outboard motor and spun like crazy. The watch
fell off the motor to the bottom of the tank, When the watch is seen again - amen -
it was still ticking!
Faith is a lot like that…it takes a licking and
keeps on ticking! So many things try to disrupt our faith, so many
things that we encounter in our every minute of every day living
threatens to throw us off balance. This maybe a bit like the cheesy
cliche, but sometimes we feel like that poor Timex watch being tested,
then retested, put out on full display before a live television audience, proved and reproved that no matter what full measure bizarre thing comes along, we are the ones left standing
in the end, we are the ones who, while at the bottom of a water tank,
feeling sufficiently dizzy, are looking brand right out of the box new.
The question is - how long can one endure it? How far out can our faith be pushed?
What amazes me is
this: the makers of those commercials kept on pushing the limits of
those watches and I suppose man too came up with a few ways to stretch
the limit of durability - anyone remember using a sledge hammer like
I did once? I will not tell you what happened but suffice to say the
owner got very mad and I had to buy a new watch. So, that is how
heavily life's circumstances repeatedly tries our faith - right to the
brink of collapse. What are the limits of human endurance? Peter's
answer: 'His divine power has given us everything we need to experience
life and to reflect God’s true nature through the knowledge of the One
who called us by His glory and virtue.' God's grace without limit!
This is the catch:
Even though our faith gets heavily testes at times, even though our
faith is disrupted beyond our ability to manage it by ourselves … we
must understand that behind it all … God is very definitely hard at work
within us. Faith is hard work and we will get beaten down, no
question about it. And in that, like Peter, as your body mind and spirit
strives to recover, I truly wish you a full measure of God's grace and
peace as you grow in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord and The
Holy Spirit. Yes indeed, on any given day, our faith takes a great
beating which means lot of love will be expended and freely given by God, without limit, on our behalf toward recovery, refitting, restoration and revival.
Let Us Pray: Today, privately or with someone personalize Psalm 121
toward your own individual concerns and other weighty matters.
http://www.youtube.com/
Read: 2 Peter 1:1 - 9
Let us go back to a time, years and years ago, when Timex had this wonderful slogan about their watches: "Timex…takes a licking and keeps on ticking.” The big idea was simply that no matter what you did to a Timex watch, it would just keep working. If I remember correctly, they even had a commercial that showed a barren wasteland after a nuclear explosion. Lying on the ground was a Timex watch…ticking away! I so remember an old 50's live television commercial where one of those watches was wrapped around the propeller of an outboard motor and spun like crazy. The watch fell off the motor to the bottom of the tank, When the watch is seen again - amen - it was still ticking!
Faith is a lot like that…it takes a licking and keeps on ticking! So many things try to disrupt our faith, so many things that we encounter in our every minute of every day living threatens to throw us off balance. This maybe a bit like the cheesy cliche, but sometimes we feel like that poor Timex watch being tested, then retested, put out on full display before a live television audience, proved and reproved that no matter what full measure bizarre thing comes along, we are the ones left standing in the end, we are the ones who, while at the bottom of a water tank, feeling sufficiently dizzy, are looking brand right out of the box new. The question is - how long can one endure it? How far out can our faith be pushed?
What amazes me is this: the makers of those commercials kept on pushing the limits of those watches and I suppose man too came up with a few ways to stretch the limit of durability - anyone remember using a sledge hammer like I did once? I will not tell you what happened but suffice to say the owner got very mad and I had to buy a new watch. So, that is how heavily life's circumstances repeatedly tries our faith - right to the brink of collapse. What are the limits of human endurance? Peter's answer: 'His divine power has given us everything we need to experience life and to reflect God’s true nature through the knowledge of the One who called us by His glory and virtue.' God's grace without limit!
This is the catch: Even though our faith gets heavily testes at times, even though our faith is disrupted beyond our ability to manage it by ourselves … we must understand that behind it all … God is very definitely hard at work within us. Faith is hard work and we will get beaten down, no question about it. And in that, like Peter, as your body mind and spirit strives to recover, I truly wish you a full measure of God's grace and peace as you grow in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord and The Holy Spirit. Yes indeed, on any given day, our faith takes a great beating which means lot of love will be expended and freely given by God, without limit, on our behalf toward recovery, refitting, restoration and revival.
Let Us Pray: Today, privately or with someone personalize Psalm 121 toward your own individual concerns and other weighty matters.
http://www.youtube.com/
Hillsong UNITED Stay and Wait Lyric Video
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Stay
and Wait Lyric Video - for more information on the Zion album and
Hillsong UNITED visit www.hillsongunited.com - to purchase:
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