Daily Devotional For January 12, 2025
To the One who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood, and has made us a kingdom, priests before God, even His Father– to Him be glory and power forever and ever, Amen. Rev 1:5b-6.
Nothing can get you down like being fired. But being fired from a job is not the worst thing that could happen to you. In his book, We Got Fired…and It’s the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Us, Harvey Mackay shares inspirational stories of rejects turned celebrities.
Elvis Presley got fired from a music studio in 1954. He was told, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. Go back and drive a truck.” Tell that to the thousands of Elvis impersonators who sing his tunes decades after his death.
Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper for lack of ideas. The Disney Company, with its movies, theme parks, television stations and more, is now a multibillion-dollar empire.
A French cycling team dropped Lance Armstrong after he began treatment for testicular cancer in 1997 (with just a 50 percent chance of survival). They even refused to pay his remaining salary or his medical bills. Big mistake. Armstrong not only beat the cancer, but he won six consecutive (and still counting in 2004) Tour de France races after recovery.
Before he ruled CNN, Larry King wrote a column for the Miami Herald. The Herald’s editor fired him for being too chummy with his subjects. His way with people paid off, though; few politicians or celebrities ever bypass “Larry King Live” today.
Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Computer in his garage, then got fired from his own company. Jobs picked up the pieces and bought a majority share in Pixar in 1986. Nine years later, he won an Oscar for Toy Story. In 1996 he was back at Apple!1
I can relate to how it feels when life dishes out rejection. But the above examples make it clear that no matter how bad things get (Armstrong could have been dead by 1998), God can use it as a stepping stone to greatness.
I certainly don’t always feel like a king, do you? When you feel like nothing will ever go right for you, and everybody’s against you; it is easy to wonder whether life is worth living. Yet Revelation insists that we are elevated to the status of kings and priests in Jesus Christ. When you think that you are nobody, that no one cares, grab the Book of Revelation and scatter those thoughts with the clear assertions of God’s Word! We are not nobodies, we have been elevated to the highest places in Christ. The Book of Revelation is not only a revelation of who Jesus Christ is but of who we can become in Him.
Lord, all the glory and all the praise belong to You. Burn into my heart today a strong sense of the value I have in Your eyes.
1 Based on an email from Paul Wangai, October 29, 2004. See also Harvey Mackay, We Got Fired…and It’s the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Us, A Ballantine Book (NY: Random House, 2004).