Have You Felt Like Giving Up Lately?نموونە

Have You Felt Like Giving Up Lately?

Why do we feel like giving up at times? Mostly because we act as if God has forsaken the earth. We don’t doubt his existence or his reality, but our prayers seem to go unanswered. We cry out for his help in such desperation, and he seems not to hear. We struggle along, making one mistake after another. We make promises to do better; we get into the Bible; we cry and pray and stay busy helping others and doing good. But we are so often left with an empty, unfulfilled sensation. The promises of God haunt us. We claim those promises in what we believe is honest, childlike faith, but time after time we fail to receive what we ask for. In the hour of temptation, down we go!

Doubt creeps in, and Satan whispers, “Nothing works. Faith in God doesn’t produce results. In spite of your tears, prayers and trust in God’s Word, nothing really changes. Days, weeks and even years go by, and your prayers, hopes and dreams are still unanswered and unfulfilled. Quit. Give up.”

Every Christian on this planet reaches that crisis point at one time or another in life. In that moment, when the walls seem to be caving in and the roof appears to be collapsing, when everything seems to be coming apart and sin demands the upper hand, a voice deep within cries out, “Walk away from it all. Pack it in. Escape! Why put up with it? Run away. You don’t have to take it. Do something drastic.”

In my own struggles, I’ve found great comfort and help in two wonderful absolutes.

God really loves me. This is the first absolute. God is not in the business of condemning his children, failures or not. He yearns over us as a loving Father, wanting only to lift us out of our weaknesses.

The second absolute is this. “Without faith it is impossible to please him” (Heb. 11:6). 

God wants so much to be trusted. That trust he counts as righteousness. I know some very holy, sanctified people (at least outwardly) who walk the straight and narrow. They would never once admit to feelings of failure and despair. They think of themselves as saints, but their great sin is doubt. 

I am convinced Satan wants to rob me of only one thing, and that is my faith. He really doesn’t want my morals or my good deeds or my dreams. He wants to destroy my faith and make me believe God has forsaken this earth.

A fall is never fatal to those who keep their faith intact. In spite of continual struggles and feelings of helplessness at times, I still believe my Lord. In spite of despair and pressures that stunt the mind and sap the strength, I believe God. I believe he will keep me from falling and present me faultless before the throne of glory with exceedingly great joy.