The Man in the Arena

People who make history usually combine both talent and perseverance. The famous American inventor Thomas Edison, when questioned about his mistakes, supposedly replied, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”37 The value of perseverance was emphasized by Theodore Roosevelt in his speech “The Citizenship in a Republic,” delivered at Sorbonne, Paris, on April 23, 1910.

The most widely quoted portion of the speech is known as “The Man in the Arena” and reads as follows: It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

You and I live in the arena of the great controversy between good and evil, in an unceasing struggle “against spiritual hosts of wickedness” (Ephesians 6:12).

Regardless of how talented and persistent we are, our best efforts in this battle will certainly fail if not strengthened and guided by God’s almighty power.

Ellen White writes that “the secret of success is the union of divine power with human effort. Those who achieve the greatest results are those who rely most implicitly upon the Almighty Arm.” God is giving us a new day.

Please, do not face it in your own human strength.

You need His strength and guidance in all you do and say.

With God as your partner, you can be more than victorious today.

May the Lord be close to you at every moment! Amen.