For Lack Of Trying

March 10th, for lack of trying, have you ever wanted something so badly you were willing

to do whatever it took to achieve it?

Suddenly, we want to put everything we've got, our time, our energy, maybe even our finances,

into this one ambition.

It may require discipline and self-denial, but the sacrifice is worth it.

In our hearts, said on something, we're willing to live by these new rules.

And now I wonder, are you applying this same ambition to your Christian walk?

How badly are you striving to grow in your relationship with Christ?

Today we'll hear from a man named Nathan Tate who struggled with trying.

He's here to share with us his true story.

And today's unshackled, daily devotional.

As a child, I wanted to know God, but didn't know how, so I gave up and tried everything

else.

At age 13, I started making corn liquor with my brother.

I knocked around the country for several years, hopping trains, a con there, looking for

a scam.

Still a bootleger, I joined the army.

I married the year before I got out.

To support us, I gambled in random numbers for a bookie, but I refused when they wanted

me to be a hitman.

My cheating ways almost got me killed several times, driving me to drink even harder.

I knew I had to quit drinking or die, so I quit, but I still chased around.

My wife finally took our son and left me.

One day while listening to a preacher on the car radio, I knew I needed God, but I still

didn't know how to reach him, so I talked with a preacher.

He said, if you love the Lord, keep his commandments.

I remember all the times the Lord took care of me when I was hopping freight trains.

The times I looked down the barrel of a gun, driving home that day, I prayed and asked

Jesus into my heart.

I found my wife and learned that she had been saved two weeks earlier.

That was 1956, and I've been preaching the gospel ever since.

Titus, chapter 2, verses 11 and 12, say, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation

hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should

live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

Friend, the Apostle Paul wrote these words to early believers, warning them not to slouch

into a self-pleasing existence.

If we're not careful, we can become slag and undiscipline.

We're swayed by the whims of the world.

Considering Nathan's testimony, what does that get us?

While the structures of godly discipline do present a more challenging path, they lead

to immeasurably greater rewards.

Will you receive this truth today?

Unshackled, the longest running audio drama in history airs on over 3,000 radio stations

worldwide, real people, real life stories, stirring dramatic accounts of hopelessness, and

the hope that changes everything.

This award-winning program grips the heart with compelling and relevant stories of transformed

lives.

Without Jesus Christ, we are all shackled by sin, by our wrong choices, disobedience and

selfish motives.

But God is at work, and the power of Christ sets us free of our bondage.

Unshackled daily devotionals are built on true life accounts, and help us ponder the

application of Scripture to our lives.

Each devotional tells a dramatic testimony of transformation of a real person, while addressing

a relatable issue of the human condition.

Listen to a new devotional every day, and don't forget to tell your friends about Unshackled

daily devotionals.