“It is God who clothes me with strength…”

— Psalm 18:32

“You’re a dunce.” That’s what she said. “You’re a dunce, and I am going to fail you,” and the teacher failed Einstein in mathematics. Who was the dunce? “I’m sorry, we don’t want you in our choir. You can’t sing, so don’t come back,” but Jerome Hines became the greatest basso profundo the Metropolitan has ever known.

We believe the lies of our past. Our own failures speak eloquently to us: “You can’t do it. Don’t you remember? You tried before and you failed. You even tried twice, three times, and you failed. You can’t do it.” Those are lies.

Walt Disney went broke seven times before he succeeded. Thomas Edison made 10,000 experiments that failed before he developed the incandescent light. Babe Ruth drew up the largest record of failure—of strikeouts—in the history of baseball. Nobody remembers the failures of these people. They remember their successes. Zig Ziglar says that a big shot is just a little shot that kept on shooting.

“I can do all things through Christ.” Who said that? Was this small Paul, the apostle, so-called—little Paul with his thorn in his flesh, with his weak eyes, whose bodily presence was weak and his speech contemptible? Yes, that is who it was. And through Christ he changed the world.

May God give us the grace to accomplish that which He wants us to do.

God of truth, we praise You that You have revealed Your truth in Jesus Christ, who is truth incarnate. Forgive us for believing lies that cause us to be on the sidelines of life when we should be out on the field. Lord, give us strength for today to believe Your truth in a world that rejects it…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE KNOW
THE TRUTH IN A WORLD OF LIES.