“We all need a nevertheless.”

A thought by Max Lucado (2013-04-29) from his book, Facing Your Giants: God Still Does the Impossible (p. 111). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

There are so many times we feel like failures and we know we aren’t going to make it.  Do you know what I mean?

Max says, “Wouldn’t you love God to write a nevertheless in your biography? Born to alcoholics, nevertheless she led a sober life. Never went to college, nevertheless he mastered a trade. Didn’t read the Bible until retirement age, nevertheless he came to a deep and abiding faith.”

He goes on, “We all need a nevertheless. And God has plenty to go around. Strongholds mean nothing to him. Remember Paul’s words? ‘We use God’s mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the Devil’s strongholds’ (2 Cor. 10: 4 NLT).  You and I fight with toothpicks; God comes with battering rams and cannons.”

Earlier he said, “Pete sits on the street and leans his head against a building. He’d like to beat his head against it. He just messed up again. Everyone misspeaks occasionally. Pete does so daily. He blurts wrong words like a whale spouts salt water, spraying folly everywhere. He always hurts someone, but tonight he hurt his dear friend. Oh, Pete and his quick-triggered tongue.

“Then there’s Joe and his failures. The poor guy can’t hold a job. His career rivals the Rocky Mountains— up, down; cold, hot; lush, barren. He tried his hand at the family business. They fired him. Tried his skills as a manager. Got canned and jailed. Now he sits in prison, future as bleak as the Mojave Desert. No one could fault him for feeling insecure; he’s flopped at each opportunity.

“So has she— not at work but at marriage. Her first one failed. So did her second. By the collapse of the third, she knew the names of the court clerk’s grandkids. If her fourth trip to divorce court didn’t convince her, the fifth removed all doubt. She is destined for marital flops.”

But as Max says, “Who knows, you may be a prayer away from a nevertheless. God loves to give them. He gave one to Pete. Remember him? Speak-now-and-think-later Pete? God released Satan’s stronghold on his tongue. For proof, read Peter’s Pentecost sermon in Acts 2. God turned impetuous Peter into the apostle Peter (Luke 22: 54– 62). And Joe, the failure? Fired by his family. Jailed by his employer . . . Can Jobless Joe ever amount to anything? Joseph did. He became prime minister of Egypt (Gen. 37– 50). What about the five-time divorcée? The woman whom men discarded, Jesus discipled. Last report had her introducing her entire village to Christ. The Samaritan woman was Jesus’s first missionary (John 4: 1– 42). Further proof that ‘God’s mighty weapons . . . knock down the Devil’s strongholds’ (2 Cor. 10: 4 NLT).

He then says, “Peter stuck his foot in his mouth. Joseph was imprisoned in Egypt. The Samaritan woman had been married five times. Jesus was dead in the grave . . . Nevertheless, Peter preached, Joseph ruled, the woman shared, Jesus rose— and you? You fill in the blank. Your nevertheless awaits you.”

Yes, it does.  So, which voice will you listen to, the one that says, never, or the one that says, nevertheless?