Don't Give Up!

When we face the temptation to quit, the enemy of our souls lies to us. He points out every deficiency in us that we are willing to consider, both real and imagined. He reminds us of our weaknesses. He describes our future to us in bleak, dreary terms and tries to strip away any hope that our present course could possibly lead to a good outcome.

He attacks our thoughts and tries to pull down our emotions. He wants us to be weakened and become depleted physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Through wearing us down, he hopes to go for the knock-out at the right moment.

Don’t give in to the lies! Persevere! The Bible says that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. He will lead you through the difficult terrain you may be on at the moment. He will not abandon you or leave you to find your own way.

When we are tempted to give up, we often think of reasons why we aren’t suited to advance through the trying circumstances we face. We see the challenges before us as monumental and our own weaknesses as glaring. In that moment of temptation, we must not fail to remember that our challenges aren’t to be compared to our abilities, but to the ability of the omnipotent God we serve.

Despite any limitation you may have, you are not a quitter. Your faith in Christ is all you need and it doesn't even have to be "great faith." Even a cry of desperation directed toward Him is a prayer of faith. When choosing to persevere feels like you are trying to walk against the current of a fast moving river, choose to act like who you are. Call upon the Christ who indwells you and press onward. A grace walk is a divinely empowered walk. It is one in which you have the capacity to rise above feelings and thoughts that would cause you to move in a wrong direction and cause you to choose the path that God has called you to walk.

I’m not suggesting that you reach down into your own humanity, your own ability, your own self confidence and keep on going. None of those are sufficient resources to give you sustained forward momentum. I am challenging you to choose by faith to depend upon the One who lives inside you. Acknowledge your weakness and appropriate His strength. Those who do so will find that instead of crashing, they “get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles. They run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t lag behind” (Isaiah 40:31, The Message).

How do we finish well? When everything in you screams that you should give up, how are you to keep going. The Bible tells us it is by “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the same, and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). What was the attitude of Jesus toward the shame of the cross? The Bible says he despised it. Do you find yourself in a situation you despise? Remember that the One who indwells you will enable you to endure the cross you bear.

You may think you don’t have enough faith to persevere, but He, alone, is the “perfecter of [your] faith.” Again, you don’t have to have great faith. You only need to depend on the One who lives inside you. His faith is enough for the both of you. He perfects (completes) your faith by infusing it with his own. When you feel like your faith is weak, remember that “the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, King James Version).

Jesus Christ looked beyond the cross and saw “the joy set before Him.” That motivated him to endure the cross. The Bible says about Moses that he “persevered because he saw him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). James wrote that “we consider blessed (happy) those who have persevered” (James 5:11).

There is power in Christ-empowered perseverance. Whatever your circumstance may be, don’t surrender to it. Lean into Him as your Source. You aren’t made for giving up under pressure. Look beyond the immediate stressful factors and see a better day ahead. It will most certainly come. Until it does, decide to persevere and, by God’s grace, follow through with your decision.