DON’T QUIT!

 

Monday, September 23, 2024

A “classic”

 

DON’T QUIT!

 

2 Peter 3:17-18

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 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.

 

 Quitting is sometimes the result of long spiritual conflict. Elijah had battled the prophets of Baal alone, he thought, yet the Lord was always with him. He was weary. He had engaged in this conflict while fasting. His body needed energy and he felt used up.

 

1 Kings 19:2-4

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.

 

Quitting is sometimes the result of disappointment with God. Jonah was not feeling like a missionary. He had no love for the people of Nineveh. They were wicked, vile, and unclean. If God had determined to judge them then that was a good thing. They deserved it. Unlike himself, they deserved to be destroyed! Yet Jonah knew that God was merciful – and he was not happy about that!

 

Jonah 4:2-4

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 curse! Worse than that, He may choose to use us to bless them. 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.

 

Revival is a return to work abandoned. Jesus recommended refreshment for his own disciples. The ministry had become demanding and draining but He never told them to quit – only to pause!

 

Mark 6:31

31 And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.

 

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit-

Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

 

Dear Lord, revive me and let me return to my work with energy and confidence. AMEN