When I was about ten-years-old, I got the hankering to stake out a tent in the yard.  Next to our yellow house stood a gigantic pecan tree.  I picked a good spot under that tree and mustered up all the tent-building skills I could from my Cub Scout pack, along with everything I could remember from watching Grizzly Adams, and set to work.  For every good tent, you have to have a good blanket.  The kind of blanket that your mother does not want you to use for staking out a tent under the pecan tree.  The kind of blanket that is the pretty blue, soft cuddly kind.  The kind of blanket you have to sneak out the backdoor while mother is folding laundry in the living room.  With a blanket like that, a ten-year-old can stake out a cool tent. 
          You also have to have some yellow rope from your Grandpa’s shed.   The kind of yellow rope used to tie down ladders for roofing jobs.  Now a ten-year-old can have the blanket and rope, a nice big pecan tree next to a yellow house, but if you don’t have stakes, then you don’t get to have any fun.  The fun part of staking a tent is pounding in the stakes.  In Marlow, Oklahoma, the best place to find tent stakes wasn’t Otasco; it was the railroad track.  Railroad spikes make awesome tent stakes.  Forget those cheap little plastic thing-a-ma-jigs that break apart with more than three blows of the hammer.  Ten-year-old boys don’t need cheap plastic stakes for tent making; they need railroad spikes.  A railroad spike will pin down a nice, pretty blue, cuddly blanket and hold it steady through an Oklahoma thunderstorm with rain, hail, and 40 mile an hour winds.  I know.  I’ve seen it happen.  The blanket may not be pretty and cuddly afterwards, but you know what?  It’s still standing.  Why?  Railroad spikes used as tent stakes.
          Storms are going to come into your life.  The 10-day forecast for you can be clear skies and sunny days, and all of sudden, a foreboding storm pops over your horizon and slams into your faith.  It happens all the time.  How will you respond?  Some people fall apart.  Some people grow angry and fill with rage.  How do you react as a follower of Christ?  When the storms of life come, God has given us promises to stake down our tents.  These promises are true.  God doesn’t make promises He doesn’t intend on keeping.  You’ve got to trust in, rely on, and believe His Word.  God gives us His promises to hold on to in the hard times, to stake our faith when the wind blows.  2 Peter 1:4 says that God has given to you and me, “exceedingly great and precious promises” so that we can experience a vibrant Christian life and “escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.”  God’s promises are the stakes that hold us together in the good times and the bad.  The bad times can cause us to doubt God’s faithfulness and goodness.  The good times can cause us to presume upon God’s mercy and make our hearts indifferent to His purposes.
          One of the Bible’s greatest promises to the children of God is Romans 8:28.  People quote it all the time to be reminded of the sovereign and providential work of God in life in the good times and bad.  Over the next five weeks, we are going to stake out the tent of our faith with Romans 8:28.  This strong promise has the power to keep your faith steady through the best of times and the worst of times.  Jesus-followers need to know it.  We need to put it in our hearts and mouths.  We need to grab on to this promise like a sumo wrestler would grab the last Twinkie in the box.  God’s vision and plan for your life is unstoppable, if you will stake down your life with His promise. 

Category : Tommy Talk