Today’s Devotional: Never Give Up!
We all know that life can be discouraging. Like everyone else, I’ve been through times when it seemed that everything was going wrong. In those moments it would have been easy to rationalize throwing in the towel and walking away from the situation; but whenever I managed to stay and work through the situation, it proved to be a life-changing event. There’s something about standing up in the face of adversity that tests and strengthens our character in profound ways.
This devotional from Daily Encounter urges us to follow the advice of Paul and to never waver in our diligence to the Gospel. Much like the famous Churchhill quotation to “never, never, never…give in,” we need to stick to our convictions in the good and bad times:
It was during World War II when Great Britain’s back was against the wall defending herself against seemingly overwhelming odds with the unrelenting onslaught of Hitler’s military might, and the unyielding bombing by the German Luftwaffe.
Winston Churchill was asked to address the students at Harrow School, the school I believe that Churchill himself had attended as a student. The following is the speech that he gave that day:
“Never give in—never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
When it came to never giving up Churchill certainly practiced what he preached. His determined leadership helped win the war against Germany. And when it comes to God’s work, let us all be like the Apostle Paul who said about his work for God: “It is God himself, in his mercy, who has given us this wonderful work [of telling his Good News to others] and so we never give up.”
Is your life characterized by this resolution? When life’s challenges feel overwhelming, what helps you to hold your ground and resist the urge to give up and walk away?
Check out the inspirational song “Troubles Won’t Last” by Russell Leonce. It definitely shows us why we must never give up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UAV79oY4Ek
When we take hold of Christ and we rely on Him for our complete existence it is impossible to give in to any adversity that come our way. Our difficulty is having that faith that will allow us to realize that God is in total control and the adversities that face us daily are just enablers to getting us to higher heights on the christian walk. Our humanness can make us feel incompetent and incapable of dealing with life’s challenges. Sometimes we believe that life has been and is unfair to us and not not able to come to grips with the fact that just being a follower of Christ unleashes the forces of evil to fight against us…they fought against Jesus tooth and nail…and they are still fighting to overcome the Kingdom of Christ. But if our perspective is right and we can set our eyes on Christ…we will be more than conquerors through Him. We face another danger in self. Many seek to win and overcome in their own strength. We live at a time when the “I can do it” mantra is espoused to the exclusion of God can. Christians need to be careful to remember and acknowledge that “I can do all things through Christ” not of our by ourselves. We need to remember that “Christ lives in us and the life we live is lived by faith in Christ”, I pray today that as we face life’s challenges we will do so unflinchingly with Christ as our leader.
I am sure that every Christian martyr throughout all of history died with the joy and peace that comes from knowing God and secure in the knowledge that they were joining Him in Heaven.
With Heaven to look forward to, our outlook about things here on earth take on a new perspective. Sure, what we do now is important to us now, and to the people we share this place with. But as Billy Graham said, “My home is in Heaven. I’m just traveling through this world.” There is security in knowing where we are going and that anything we endure here on earth is temporary. Enduring, seeing things through, becomes easier.
I always knows life is a place of work. We were born becaus there are prolems to solve so I see every situation just something that has to be done and not to run away from.
Thank you. I resolve to work on my problems instead of running away from them.
Its really great and encouraging to stay and hold on to Jesus because if we give up, we all know that without him we are naked and theres nothing that we can do… He knows our names and what we are going through, the great days are just ahead of us only we can do is to wait on him patiently. God is so good!