The Story

This past March I was out splitting wood when all at once I felt the splitter mashing just above the first joint on my left thumb. When I took the glove off it was bad and off to the ER we went and a good Doctor worked on it and saved it by sewing it back together. I told you that to explain what happened afterward that God used in my life to teach me something very valuable. Now do I believe that God caused that to happen? No, I don't but He did use what happened to teach me something about Him. The days that followed were days with a big bandage and a very sore thumb. May I say my left hand stood out like a sore thumb? Almost everyone that saw it said the same words "what did you do to your thumb." After a while I got weary of telling it over and over again to the point where I tried to hide my thumb, which was impossible. I began to notice something every time I finished telling what happened and some times before I finished. I would get to see a scar and a story of how they almost cut this and that off. I was so glad when the bandages came off and I could somewhat hide my thumb. Here is what the Lord taught me in all that. How quick are we to identify and tell a similar story of a mishap that has happened to us. As I asked myself wouldn't it be wonderful if we did the same thing spiritually? I mean when we see something different about a person and they tell us why or what happened that we would say something that would bring honor and glory to our Lord and Savior and not ourselves. It's not us we are trying to get others to see, it's Jesus Christ we want them to see. A man called me one day and said I just ran into a person that knew you years ago. I said really what was his name? He told me and sure enough he did know me years ago. Then this person began to ask me questions about what this other person had told him about me. He said is all that true? I said I am sorry to say it is and then I quickly added but God has done a lot of work since then and I like the Apostle Paul can now say

Philippians 3:13
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

Philippians 3:14
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Yes, my friend, I choose not to remember those things in my past because they are in my past not my present or future. The runners in the Olympic Games didn't waste any time thinking about what the runner next to him was wearing or what he had done or not done for him to be where he was. They had one thing on their mind, the white line. The difference with you and I are that we don't have to out run those next to us to win the prize.

1Corinthians 9:24
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

1Corinthians 9:25
And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. One more thing that Paul said

2Timothy 4:7
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Did you notice what Paul didn't say? He didn't say that he crossed the finish line and was awarded the Gold. Nor did he say that he had won he just simply said he had finished his course and had kept the faith and fought a good fight. What's my and your story? Will it be a story of what happened to us or a story of what He did for us and with us?