Giving Up
No one ever launches out into any
endeavor planning to give up along the way.
When couples make their marriage vows, they say something like, “in
sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, in joy and in sorrow,”
meaning that no matter how tough things get, they are not going to give up on
the marriage; yet, many individuals in marriages do give up, and divorce is
often the result. No one looking for a
job starts filling out applications planning at some point to give up if they
don’t get the job they want, but many do give up along the way. No one is ever baptized into Christ, planning
on giving up on the Lord when sin and life become too burdensome, yet many
Christians do give up along the way.
Disciples of Jesus Christ,
children of God, should not be identified as those who give up on their faith
when the going gets tough.
Consider Joseph, a 17-year-old
Hebrew boy living back in the age of the Patriarchs. He starts having some bizarre dreams about
how his brothers would bow down to him and, despite the warnings of his
father,
he tells his brothers about those dreams.
The brothers despise him for it, throw Joseph into a pit, sell him into
slavery, and tell his father he is dead.
He’s sold into slavery in Egypt, and when things seem to be going well,
he ends up in prison for allegedly trying to force himself onto another man’s
wife. Now, if you were Joseph, at what
point do you think it would have been time to call it quits? Down at the bottom of that pit? In the slave train on the way to a foreign
land? Sitting there, expecting to rot
out in prison or be executed? At what
point would despair have hit you?
There were a
few occurrences in Joseph’s life where God reminded Him that He was favored,
but they were indeed few and far apart.
Joseph was confident that someday his brothers would bow to him, because
of the dreams he had. He received favor
by being given preeminence over Potiphar’s household and affairs. He was even favored in the Egyptian
jail. But WHY did he receive these
reassurances? Why could he be confident
that God favored him even in adverse circumstances? The reason is reflected in the words he
speaks to his brothers after he has revealed himself to them, “God has sent me
before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives
by a great deliverance.” (Genesis 45:7) Joseph received continued reassurances in
the Lord not simply because he was favored by God, but because he maintained
his trust that God’s will was being accomplished despite terrible
circumstances. This reminds us of what
Paul wrote in Romans 8:38-39: “For I am persuaded that
neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things
present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created
thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.”
Despite
the worst of circumstances, despite the fact that everything appeared to be
going downhill, Joseph maintained his confidence in the plans of God. He was persuaded that there was nothing in
the world that could thwart God’s plans, and so there was nothing in the world
that was powerful enough to make him give up.
Galatians
6:9 says, “Let us not grow weary in well doing, for in due season we
SHALL reap, if we faint not.” There may
come a time when you have to think practically, and give up building a rocket
ship to Mars. There may come a time when
bills need to be paid, you need to support yourself instead of living off of
others, and you have to go out and get a “real” job. Sometimes, we work and work on trying to
teach someone the gospel, and they never respond, and sometimes we have to
shake the dust off our sandals, and move on to someone else who might be more
willing to hear. Sometimes we get tired
of going through the same motions, get tired of the same job, get tired of the
same setbacks, get tired of people saying the same things over and over again, but
at the end of the day, we must KEEP DOING GOOD. Never say in your heart, “I am done trying to
help others, I am done trying to beat this sin, I am done trying to serve the
Lord.” Throughout all of Joseph’s
hardships, notice that he is always maintaining good works, honorable conduct,
seeking opportunities to serve others, never embittered to the point of just
saying, “Lord, what do you expect me to do in these terrible
circumstances?! I QUIT!” No, not Joseph, and neither should it be for
us.
Joseph never gave up on the Lord and never gave up trying to do what
was right. Moses never gave up on the
people of God, despite some harsh words he had against them and even when God
said He would wipe them out. Job,
sitting in ashes, covered in sores, his children slain, robbed of his material
wealth, his wife and his friends looking contemptuously down upon him, never
gave up. “Curse God and die???” Not a chance.
God told Satan that he, the devil, would not be victorious over the
people of God. This is an eternal
truth. We need to pick up our heads
during adversity, keep fighting, keep running, keep living and proclaiming the
name of God with confidence until our last breath, and be among the victors on
the day of judgement, and not among the quitters as they are hurled into
eternal failure.
Keep doing good. NEVER GIVE UP.
Jeremy Koontz
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