Don't Quit

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."(Galatians 6:10)

Feel like throwing in the towel lately?

You're not alone.  

Life on this ball of dirt tends to have a way of beating you down, wearing you out.  It's so easy to want to just give up and say, "I'm not winning anyway, so why keep trying!"

But please, don't quit.

I love the Biblical analogy of a farmer who sows his seed, tends his field, and then he waits ever-so-patiently for the precious harvest that will come, later.

"See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and springs rains." (James 5:7)

But we're not usually like that farmer.  We, in our "self"-centered, instant gratification society, want everything right now.  

We simply don't wait well.

One of my favorite one-liners is from Tommy Tenney:

"We're into microwaving—but God's into marinating."

Our problem is if we have to wait long for something, our natural tendency is to quit.  "If the going gets tough, the weak jump ship."   Sound familiar?

Since I've been a follower of Christ, I've heard the following expression more times than I can count: "Don't try to do anything in your own strength."

What?  How else can you do anything?

The Bible says:  "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble."

So how do you get God's grace?

Jesus said: "You receive not because you ask not."

You have to confess your absolute weakness before God, and then humble yourself and ask Him for His strength. 

Husbands, you can't be the leader, protector and provider God made you to be in your own strength.  Wives, you can't surrender your fears to Jesus and trust your husband to be the spiritual leader of the family without God's strength. Parents, you can't begin to raise a child properly (and remain sane) without God's strength.  Employee, you can't succeed at your job unless the Lord gives you His wisdom and strength to do so.

Trust me, I've repeatedly tried doing everything in my own strength, and have failed miserably, every time.

Jesus said:

"Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)

It's odd, how so many non-Christians tend to over generalize and say that Christians are the most self-righteous people around.  And maybe some are.

But it's the atheist, agnostic and secular humanist who says "I don't need a God" who are actually "self"-righteous because they think they already are good, or they can make themselves 'good' apart from God.  That is truly being "self"-righteous. 

A true follower of Christ is a person who humbles themselves before God, surrendering their heart and hurts to Him, confessing they are not good, but rather, a sinner who desperately need God's mercy, forgiveness and salvation. 

A person who is truly humble before God confesses, "I can never climb my own way up to God."

On the opposite side of the coin is the "self"-righteous person tries to climb up a man made ladder of their own good works, trying to attain or earn "enlightenment" or what they perceive to be "heaven."

So what kind of person are you?

If you have surrendered your heart and life to Jesus Christ, you will be the person who daily confesses your utter weakness to Him and then ask Him to fill you afresh with His Spirit and give you His wisdom and strength to do and become all that He has foreordained that you do and become.

It truly is that simple.

But you have to ask, and then you have to take that step of faith to do what Christ actually directs you to do.  

Until you take that step of faith—trusting God to give you the strength and wisdom He has promised—you will remain powerless.  But once you take the first step of faith, God will give you His strength to take the next step, and the next, and then the next.  

It's a divine partnership if you will.  

God can do all things, and most certainly, He can do them without us. But He in His sovereignty, has chosen to do much of His will through His people.  And then, only through His people who ask Him for wisdom and strength, and then rely wholly on Him to complete whatever good work He has begun in their lives.

That's what the Biblical word "faith" means:  to trust wholly in God.

So if you're weary, burdened, and in the process of throwing in the towel, stop. And then surrender and respond to the voice of Jesus who beckons you to come to Him.

He will give you rest for your weary soul.

God's promise to those of us who fully place our trust in Him, is that we can be absolutely confident that, 

"He who began a good work in you will carry in on to completion until the Day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6)

And God always keeps His promises.

Place your trust in Him today, and then ask Him to fill you with His Spirit and strengthen you.

He won't turn you away.

You can strive and plow the ground and then toil over planting seed.  But only God can make it rain.

     —Call on Him today.

—God is Love, and Love Never Fails.