CONQUER BY CONTINUING
Maybe you are frustrated your comeback is taking so long or maybe you have lost faith it will ever happen at all. You are thinking about quitting. You are going to quit school. You’re not going to go back next semester. College is too hard and too expensive. You are over this friendship. You’re sick of it. It’s one-sided. You’re tired of always giving and never receiving. Tired of being used and misused. Maybe you are done with God. He has not delivered the way He’s supposed to. You’re not getting what you want in life, you’ve had just about enough of it. You are through. I would tell you quitting is not the answer. It’s never been the answer. It will never be the answer. Quitters never win and winners never quit. You cannot get where God wants you to go if you quit in the middle of the process He is working in your life.
Think where we would be today as a country if Dr. Martin Luther King had quit. He was all of twenty-six years old, a brand new pastor, when people looked to him to be the spiritual leader of a boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. Why couldn’t they get one of the more veteran pastors? This began a one-year boycott. How much persistence and perseverance does it take to go through a yearlong boycott amidst such incredible challenge? At one point he was thrown in jail. A pastor was thrown in jail for standing up for civil rights. He spent eight days in jail for leading justly.
One time he got stabbed at a book signing. Just signing books for people when someone stabbed him. Think of all the boycotts, sit-ins and rallies he led. Imagine the amount of stress and pressure he was under trying to bring about social change. How many opportunities did he have to quit? How many opportunities did he have to pass on his leadership role? And yet, he persevered. The result was justice for people of color. And he did it all non-violently. What an example of Christian courage and determination.
You can hang on a lot longer than you think. You don’t think you can do it anymore. It’s so hard. It’s so challenging. But it’s darkest before the dawn. Sometimes the toughest it will ever be is right before the breakthrough. It’s hard to start over. You may not want to do it. You don’t want to risk another disappointment. You’ve had your heart broken too many times. You can do it. It’s going to get better. Who knows what God can do if you persevere? Who knows what God could change? Who knows how a situation that seems so discouraging could turn around?
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