Refused To Be Drowned
 

REFUSED TO BE DROWNED
2 Peter 3:17, “Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.”
Two frogs fell into a can of cream,
Or so I’ve heard it told.
The sides of the can were shiny and steep,
The cream was deep and cold.
“Oh, what’s the use?” said No. 1,
“‘Tis fate—no help’s around.”
“Good-bye, my friend! Good-bye, sad world!”
And weeping still, he drowned.
But No. 2 of sterner stuff,
Kept paddling, which was wise.
Then while he wiped his creamy face,
And dried his creamy eyes.
“I’ll swim awhile, at least,” he thought,
“This cream I still can tread.”
“It wouldn’t really help the world,
If one more frog was dead.”
An hour or two he kicked and swam,
Not once he stopped to mutter,
But kicked and swam, and swam and kicked,
Then hopped out, via butter.
It’s a comical poem, but one that contains a great truth. The first frog simply accepted his fate—and drowned. The second, through great perseverance and steadfastness, refused to accept his present circumstances, and thus, through his effort, turned the cream into butter, and used that as the basis for his deliverance.
The very trials we may face today can have one of two effects on us. We can simply choose to accept our demise and drown in our difficulties, or, we can choose to use those difficulties as an opportunity to gain new strength, new endurance, and turn those difficulties into the very stepping stones out of the adverse circumstances.
The choice is ours. One historian noted of great men like Thomas Alva Edison and Henry Ford that they were not necessarily the most intelligent of their day, but yet they, and other great men and women who were successful, possessed one predominate characteristic—they were persistent. They refused to give in to failure.
Perseverance is a great quality. Anyone can quit. But my prayer for you today, is that God would ignite a spark of unfailing perseverance in you, so that no matter how difficult the situation is you find yourself, you refuse to give up; and that new found steadfastness will bring you out of those dire straits, into the light of this new day.
-- Pastor Akers