Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

Hang In There

1 THESSALONIANS 5:23-24 – Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”

The man known as the “Prince of Preachers” and arguably one of the greatest servants the Lord ever gave His church, Charles Spurgeon, once said, “Fits of depression come over the most of us. Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy.”

The Apostle Paul also knew those “down times” in the Christian life when the temptation to give up the good fight of faith is strong and we feel like tossing in the spiritual towel, and stay in bed letting the world go on without us. He wrote to the Corinthians – For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death . . .(2 Corinthians 1:8-9a).

Yet, neither Spurgeon, Paul nor any other true Christian through history spiritually gave up. They fought the good fight to the end. They finished the race. They kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).And tried, tired, and weary Christian, you will also. Why? Today’s scripture. Here is a little word of encouragement. Go back to the scripture of the day and count all the things God requires of us to ensure we do fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith till the end of our lives. We won’t find any. Now before we move on, don’t misunderstand me. It is satanic and the worst of theology that says of the Christian life, “Just let go and let God.” We are called to diligence, perseverance, to kill sin, to deny ourselves, to take up our crosses, and a whole lot of other efforts to live the Christian life. God will not fight our fight of faith for us or run our race, but here is the key principle. Everything we do in the Christian life is an outflow of everything God is to us in the Christian life. Look how David, the Psalmist, proclaims all the Lord is to him – I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold(Psalm 18:1-2).List them–my strength, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my shield, my salvation, and my stronghold. And what the Lord is for David, He is for us

So, when the temptation is strong to “surrender the fight and quit the race”, do two things. Run to the scripture of today and see what God is doing and will do in our lives and the chief one is keeping us. We won’t fall away though we may feel like it. The next thing to do is memorize Psalm 18:1-2 and make it personal. In all those things the Lord is to us, there is not a trial, temptation, or difficulty in our lives that He cannot nor will not be the Overcomer for us and through us. Hang in there. We will make it all the way home to heaven because God ensures we will make it all the way home to heaven.

PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for not only Your saving grace given to me but Your keeping grace as well.”

QUOTE: “Christian, though the journey is long and hard, we will finish it because what God starts, God finishes.”