Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Thursday December 4, 2008

Over the often rough course of my life I met adversity head on and more often than not, took an old fashioned licking. I know from experience that getting beat up is not the same as being beaten, thus when I read this little bit of wisdom, I knew I had to share it with you:

"Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit."

While the above statement by Napoleon Hill is usually applied to personal achievement, it can and should be applied to the fact that your example following some sort of failure can lead others in a similar mess to also learn from the fall, list the flaws, ask forgiveness and or help and get going again. Pigs wallow in mud, humans, being made from the stuff, get up and get going, again and when needed, again.

"The seed of an equal or greater benefit." The active word is SEED. Just because you have trouble, rough sailing or turbulent skies does not mean wonderful things are going to happen to you automatically. It does mean that seeds of improvement are sown and with the proper nurturing these seeds will bring fruit, and fruit is usually more than the sown seed.

19 years ago my word fell apart to put it mildly. I certainly thought everything was over for me. Yet, Christ enabled me to continue as best I could and over the years, the seed from that cataclysmic adversity has maturated into this writing ministry which on occasion has reached 900,000 with one article and daily reaches more people than I reached at the height my "previous" life in a few years. In addition there is the monthly Larry Lilly's Journal plus the face to face preaching ministry. In 2009 I will fulfill a 47 year dream of preaching in the world famous Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago. In addition New Century Publishers has taken me under wing to publish several books. Failure? Adversity? Heartache? Yep, in spades and especially heartaches by the dozen, yet Christ loved me and enabled me to love Him more each day.

You must realize that whether the "fire" in your life is deserved or not, God will use the fire to put tensile into your spirit thus enabling you to bear up under enormous stress. The fear, torment and all the emotions associated with trouble, when properly understood as God's method to strengthen you bring about the greater benefit while the fire is also burning away the chaff and revealing slag to be knocked off as a blacksmith does when working with a horseshoe.

Charles Colson is one of the most amazing "greater benefits" in history. You must believe that God in His mercy also has "greater benefits" in seed form for you.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2008 Use with credit.

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