Encouragement

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Larry Lilly's Letter Wednesday august 31, 2005

When I was a kid, I know the proper word is 'child', but you are not cognizant with my life as a kid. I recall hearing a neighbor, Mr. Ballard Fannin who won a Purple Heart in World War Two say:

"You never know what you can do until you have to."

Mr. Fannin (I never knew his first name until I read his obituary) was attempting to teach the flock of wild kids that life can get very tough, but we humans can and sometimes have to get tougher. He was right. It is amazing at the untapped resources we all have hidden in our life. These powers do not manifest themselves until needed. Commenting on this phenomenon Professor William James wrote:

"Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger. Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed."

We make a sometimes fatal mistake when trouble comes by thinking that the power we are currently using is all there is and we are at the end of our string. This is not true and you do not have to settle for this.

May I share another secret with you?

In addition to the innate reserve power within you, as a Christian you have the power of the Holy Spirit residing in you!!

No one would deny that Paul The Apostle had enormous power which he had learned to call upon, nor would a knowledgeable person doubt the power of the spirit of God enabling him to suffer as he did for the cause of Christ.

The word 'dismayed' is often used in scripture to communicate the danger of letting fear dominate our thoughts. To be dismayed literally means to 'be disabled through fear.' Sometimes people and animals are so afraid that they cannot move, to be paralyzed with fear in not a mere expression, it is a reality. David coped with this kind of fear when he wrote, "What time I am afraid I will trust in thee."

When we express faith in God rather than fear because of some real or imagined monster, we unleash the power God has given to us, including the power of His Spirit. We must learn to put our faith in Christ and not fear what man or life shall do to us.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2005 Use with credit

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