Never Give Up – Get Up, Get Going
The road to the Kingdom is very slippery and narrow and has many difficulties, hardships and troubles. Those with faith and who wait patiently for the Lord’s coming will have salvation if only they obey his laws. But “broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat” (Matt.7:13). Verse 14 says, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”.
A striker in a football match does not stop playing after his shot has gone off target. He continues feverishly till he finds the right strategies to hit the back of his opponent’s net. Famous scientists and inventors have to experiment many times before finding a good new one. If a particular formula fails to yield the desired result, they discard it and replace it with another. Instead of despairing because it failed, they encourage themselves that they are one step closer to finding the right answer. As a normal child when you attempted to walk, you fell on many occasions and perhaps hurt yourself in the process, but did you quit trying? If you did, you would still be on the ground. So never give up; when you fail in life please pray to the Lord to help you up and then get going. Failure will surely come because it is part of life. It makes life interesting and fascinating. Don’t let it paralyse you and prematurely abort your dreams, else you will not rise. So in time of trouble, call upon the Lord.
Psalm 50:15, the Lord says: “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me”. And, remember, it is not how we start that is important, it is how we finish. We have not failed until we stop trying.
The story of King David is helpful: “So David and his men came to the city and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives and their sons and daughters were taken captives. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep. And David’s two wives were taken captive: Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God”. David looked up to God from whom comes hope, but looking at the problem itself will bring discouragement and sadness (1Sam.3);3-6).
In Joshua 1:5-6 the Lord told Joshua, “There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage”. So we must always be strong in the Lord in all our ways.
We read of Abraham, “Who against hope believed in hope, and being not weak in faith he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being persuaded that what he had promised, he was able to perform”.
In the second letter to Timothy (4:6-8), Paul, with all boldness of faith in the Lord, said: “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing”. Also in his first letter to Timothy (6:12) we are all encouraged by Paul to “fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses”. We are not to give up in whatever we do and, as the saying goes, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and again’ in prayer to the Father, and He will direct us what to do.
We are also encouraged by Hebrews 12:1-2 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”. And, lastly, “He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me”. May the good Lord keep us and bless us all. Amen.
Bro. Joseph Oppong (Shama, Ghana)
