Resilience: If at first you do not succeed, STOP! Do not try again! Stop! Reflect! Rest! Think! Get some real help! Get a plan! PRAY! Then try again!
“Candidates tell us they are resilient……“Frankly, they are just too young to know that about themselves. Resilience is something you realize you have after the fact” --- Diane L. Coutu.
Resilience: a Core Value of Successful People
I love being around relentless people, for relentless people teach me that being resilient is a core value of successful people. Resilience is seeing a single mother raise two boys in a local church and never miss a service. Nobody in my four decades of life has ever taught me more about being resilient than the teenagers in my church. For instance, I see resilience in the eyes of teenagers on the southside of Chicago who walk a mile to church in a neighborhood where innocent bystanders have been shot. Many of them have dreams and aspirations to attend college, but they have no support system at home to challenge them to reach their goals. Yet, they refuse to allow fear of the future, or failure, to hold them back from working towards achieving their goal of getting a world class education.
God's Resilience in His Saving Grace
Friend, let me remind you that God has not given up on you. God is for you. His love is resilient towards you. If you think you have catastrophically destroyed God’s plan for your life, my dear friend, you are not that smart and sovereign. The God of the Bible is too big to be thwarted by your mistakes. Your sin has been covered by the wonderful grace of Jesus Christ. God is resilient towards you. Resilience is a Biblical core value. We can see it in God’s passion to save sinners. In reading the Old Testament, we are often perplexed by a good, gracious, and holy God in which has both resilient and relentless in His passion to save sinners. God’s grace exhibits amazing resilience.
Nehemiah's Resilience
This week, God has shown me His mercy in giving me the chance to preach from the book of Nehemiah at Steubenville Baptist Church in Monticello, Kentucky. I have had a tremendous time speaking for my good friend, Pastor Buddy Duke. Duke and I graduated from college together in Tennessee. Today, we are both serving Christ in very different contexts, but we are rooted in the same theological context and grounded in Biblical Theology. We both value the Gospel of Christ and preach passionately with grace and Truth. He has been a blessing to my life, and we both share a great deal of love for good books. The book of Nehemiah is what God has been using to ignite passion for him in the lives of His people.
God has been giving me favor in allowing me to preach through the book of Nehemiah each session during this four day Bible conference and revival at His church. One trait that impresses me about Nehemiah is NOT his dynamic leadership skill of planning, but instead his skill of being relentlessly resilient. Nehemiah is not deterred or distracted by his critics. Rather, he and his team are motivated by the negativity of their enemies. Examine the dialogue below and see the resilience in the heart of Nehemiah for rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem:
“When Sanballat heard that we were building the wall of Jerusalem, he was very angry and upset. He started making fun of the Jews. Sanballat talked with his friends and the army at Samaria and said, ‘What are these weak Jews doing? Do they think we will leave them alone? Do they think they will offer sacrifices? Maybe they think they can finish building in only one day. They cannot bring stones back to life from these piles of trash and dirt. These are just piles of ashes and dirt!’ Tobiah the Ammonite was with Sanballat. Tobiah said, ‘What do these Jews think they are building? If even a small fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!’”
Nehemiah and his dedicated team were attacked. Watch for the response of God working in their lives though, and watch for the resilience in Nehemiah’s life.
4:4 - Nehemiah prayed and said, “Our God, listen to our prayer. These men hate us. Sanballat and Tobiah are insulting us. Make bad things happen to them. Make them ashamed, like people taken away as prisoners. Don’t take away their guilt or forgive the sins they have done in your sight. They have insulted and discouraged the builders.” We built the wall of Jerusalem all the way around the city. But it was only half as tall as it should be. We did this much because the people worked with all their heart. So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.” ---Nehemiah 4:1-4, 6 NIV
Choose Resilience for All Your Struggles in Life
Friend, my prayer for you and your spouse is that today, you will not give up on your marriage.
My prayer for your work is that you will not give up on your business plan.
My prayer today for you is that when you fail, you will choose resilience and rise up again!
I am praying for you, and I love you.
Respectfully,
Pastor James Owolabi
Edited by Andy Gehron (DefendingTheLord.com)
Comments