There are probably thousands of real-life examples to substantiate what we learned yesterday about why it’s good to delay gratification. To drive home this point, I’m going to share a couple of them with you today. 

Forgive me for going to baseball, but I just love the sport, and I think a prime example of an athlete who surrendered his potential and best life for a shortcut is Barry Bonds. He was one of the greatest players of all time, and he even broke Hank Aaron’s record, but nobody was watching because there was a case in congress at the time about performance enhancing drugs (steroids), and it turned out that he was using them. On the other hand, when Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s record in 1974, there were 16 million people around the world celebrating. Why? Because he did it the honest way, but Bonds did not. Another great example from corporate America is Wells Fargo. Though it took them 100 years to build a rock-solid reputation, a century of hard work was undone overnight when it was discovered in 2016 that they had created three and a half million fake accounts and embezzled money from people all over the country. Not only did they have to pay that money back, they lost their good standing with the public, and that was a priceless commodity. 

Similarly, my friend, if you forgo your reputation in favor of instant gratification, you will look back and want nothing more than to retrieve it, but you may not be able to. This is why it’s so important to guard your blessings and pay the price required to have abundant life in Jesus. Even when it costs you, you must defend the good and perfect gifts that have been given to you by doing the next right thing. Follow the Holy Spirit’s lead, walk the hard road of discipleship, and you will live the blessed and free life that Jesus died to give you!