Yesterday, I traded in my trial hearing aids for my newly ordered personal ones. They came with three very cool gadgets. I can now receive phone calls directly into my hearing aids through a simple device I hang around my neck! When I am on my computer, and click on a video, the sound is directly channeled to my hearing aids! And, if I am in a noisy restaurant and cannot hear my table mates speak, I just clip a little microphone on their lapel, and their voice is piped directly into my hearing aids! And, when I take the aids out at night, I have a cool ultraviolet storage box that kills bacteria and moisture so these technological wonders will last for years to come. We who are hard-of-hearing have never had it so good!
Until a half hour from the time I got home with my brand new hearing aids and the right one stopped working.
All my enthusiasm whooshed out of me like a popped balloon. Brand new hearing aids with so much potential before them, and they stop working only shortly after being fired up. Disappointing.
But it made me think about how many of us start off with great intentions, go rocketing forward in our goals, and peter out as soon as the real work begins. I know this is often true in our walk of faith. We start off on fire for God, ready to tell the world the incredible truth of Jesus our savior who died for our sins, rose from the dead, and then offered us the gift of eternal life simply by our acceptance! We can't wait to do monumental things for God, now empowered by the Holy Spirit that indwells every believer.
And then...what happens? Rough roads of tribulation trip us, tangled underbrush of worry snags and slows our progress, roadblocks of doubt stop us dead in our tracks...and pretty soon we give up. We stop working for the Lord, and are enticed by the allure of a world that has nothing but dead ends to offer us.
I took out the batteries and let my hearing aids "rest" over night. In the morning they were working again, but I will call the audiologist. They need some time with their Creator for some reprogramming,. If they can't even work for one day, they are probably not ready for eternity.
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Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so
closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the
joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and
is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with
our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are,
yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of
grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of
need.
They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment,
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker
who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
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