I wrote the following nearly two years ago as an expansion on an AWANA object lesson... and it seems as though it was a message intended for me today.
I found it while cleaning out my files and was struck with the way God's Word echoes throughout our lives... and the realization I'm a really slow learner and it takes a long time for a message to get through. So here goes - perhaps it will be a timely message for someone else as well?
In 1968 Dr. Spence Silver invented a new glue. Although the glue was very sticky, it didn’t stay stuck. No matter how much pressure was applied, this sticky glue would come away easily every time even though it maintained its stickiness.
For nearly 10 years this glue was considered a failure by Dr. Silver and the company he worked for. The idea was sound but the product had proved unmarketable. It sat on a shelf in the research department, unused and worthless - or was it?
Then, along came Art Fry, an employee of the same company who was looking for a solution to his frustration. A member of his church choir, he had numerous paper bookmarks in his hymnal but they kept falling out. He tried to hold them in with tape but when he removed them the pages ripped.
This dilemma sent him to Dr. Silver and the research department.
Wouldn't you know, the very thing that made Dr. Silver’s glue a “failure” led to one of the best-known and most popular office products in the world!
The company Dr. Silver and Mr. Fry worked for was 3M and the product they invented was the Post-it-Note. The glue that was considered worthless became 3M's most widely sold product.
Hmm... sound familiar?
On the night of Jesus' arrest Peter was asked three times if he was one of those who was with Jesus. Three times Peter denied him.
As a spokesman for Christ in those moments, Peter was weak, unfaithful... worthless. Imagine how deeply ashamed Peter felt to know that when it really mattered, he failed the One he had named the Christ, Son of the Living God.
He could have given up. The world might say he should have given up.
But he didn't. Despite his shame and despite his failures, he took on the Great Commission and took up the reins of the infant Church. On the day of Pentecost, filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter preached Jesus' message of repentance, forgiveness and salvation.
In one single day, speaking through Peter, God drew thousands of men, women and children into His eternal family. From that day forward, until the day he was martyred, Peter lived and breathed Christ's redemption.
The fallen was lifted up.
The failure was made complete.
If you're anything like me, you've had moments where you think that God could never do with you what he did with Peter. Peter was special. Peter was the ROCK. "Who am I?" we ask, "How could God ever do anything like that with me?"
In our fear of failure, we deny Christ in us. We say, "I do not know Him!" We tell God we do not trust Him.
Perhaps you have sat on a shelf, feeling unused and worthless. A failure. Incomplete. Weak.
Beloved children of the Living God! Ask God who you are to be used by Him!
You are chosen. You are called. You are the reason God descended to earth in human flesh. You are the reason He was nailed to a cross. You are the reason He rose from the grave to conquer sin and death.
You are the bride; loved, valued, bought with a price and cherished above all else. You are His.
Next time you think you aren’t worthy enough to be used by God, remember that God’s power, like Dr. Silver’s glue, succeeds in the very things that we think make us failures.
"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." 2 Corinthians 12:9
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