The Worst and the Best

Be en-couraged, not dis-couraged, by the likelihood that the hardest battles in your life have not yet been fought. If it is true – that the worst is yet to come – then it is true that the best is also yet to come. The greatest challenges are shoved out front to scare us or distract us from or prepare us for the greatest prizes.

If you avoid the lion and the bear, you are not prepared by them for Goliath. If you have been battling lions and bears, you are being prepared for something greater. The big step is when the prize becomes another level of life, not just more preparation for that level. We are empowered by the proving that comes through responsibilities that we handle well to be trusted with authorities that we can then handle well.

“At his return, having received the authority to be king, he summoned those slaves he had given the money to so he could find out how much they had made in business. The first came forward and said, ‘Master, your mina has earned 10 more minas.’
“‘Well done, good slave!’ he told him. ‘Because you have been faithful in a very small matter, have authority over 10 towns.’
“The second came and said, ‘Master, your mina has made five minas.’
“So he said to him, ‘You will be over five towns.'”
(Luke 19:15-19 HCSB ©®)