Once, when I was staying at a hotel in Barbados, I couldn’t sleep because I wasn’t yet used to the time difference. At about two in the morning, I was up watching a boxing match on television. It was a twelve-round title match, and the boxer from Mexico was pummeling the boxer from the United States. Every time the American boxer moved forward to fight, the other boxer pounded him. By the sixth round, the U.S. boxer was getting beaten badly, and at the end of the round, he stumbled back into his corner, sat down on the stool, and sagged as if he were a sack of potatoes. Then I saw something happen. In seconds, several men went to work on him. One grabbed a bucket of water and doused him with it. The next grabbed a soaking-wet sponge and squeezed water all over his face. Another applied ointment to soothe his wounds. These men were all talking to him at once, and they were rubbing him down as they talked. You Can Do This! Even though he was getting trounced, they were telling him, “You can do this. You can get back out there. You’re strong! You’re better than he is!” One of the men said, “Keep your left hook, okay? Keep your left hook. He’s a slow left. You can get him with that left.” After about two minutes, the boxer jumped up, saying, “Yeah! Oh, yeah!” He ran back out there, and everything changed in the seventh round. Guess who won the fight? The one who had been about to quit in the sixth round won the fight and received the prize. There was blood everywhere, but under that blood was the champion. When he won the decision, all his strength came back. He ran around the room screaming. When you win, you forget all the pounding you received during the fight. Stay In The Fight! Sometimes, you may get beaten up pretty badly in life, but stay in the fight. Fight until you feel the joy of victory. When you think you’re going to lose, and you stumble back into the corner of life, and God will come and pour the cool water of His Word on your head. He will take the ointment of His Spirit and bring healing to your wounds. He will rub life back into your spirit so you can jump back out and say, “Hey! Come on, Life!” Just like the boxer’s coaching team, the Spirit of God speaks good things into your spirit, such as “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4 KJV).
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 15:57:52 +0000