DON’T LET SATAN WEAR YOU OUT!

DON’T LET SATAN WEAR YOU OUT!

2 Peter 3:17-18 KJV

17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.

18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

The call for courage and stamina is needed when God’s good people are overwhelmed by a constant barrage of evil all around them. The Amplified New Testament warns: “do not allow the error of lawless and wicked persons to cause you to fall from your own present firm condition.” It is Satan’s sinister plan to wear out the saints and cause them to quit.

1. QUITTING IS OFTEN A RESULT OF LONG SPIRITUAL CONFLICT!

1 Kings 19:2-4 KJV

2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time.

3 And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.

4 But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.

Can you feel the weariness of the prophet? Can you hear it in his voice as he sighs out the words “it is enough?” Those three words “it-is-enough” is from only one small Hebrew word rab which means “too much.” Too much conflict, too much effort, too little results and too much disappointment are all wrapped up in that one little word. Ultimately the prophet simply sits down under a shady tree and asks to be removed from God’s labor pool. The answer is not to quit but to rest then return.

2. QUITTING IS SOMETIMES THE RESULT OF DISAPPOINTMENT IN GOD!

Jonah 4:2-4 KJV

2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.

4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?

God may decide to love those that we have chosen to hate. He may choose to bless those whom we would blast! Worse than that, He may choose to trouble us when we feel that we do not deserve the trouble. Disappointment forms and grows because we do not understand God’s purposes. We begin to think that our reasoning is better than His and we are tempted to quit. This is now the second prophet who has requested early retirement through death. “Doest thou well to be angry?”

If there is one thing upon earth that mankind loves and admires better than another, it is a brave man--a man who dares look the devil in the face and tell him he is the devil. -- James Garfield

Dear Lord, give me courage and resilience. Don’t let the devil wear me out. Let me return to my work with energy and confidence. AMEN