Don't quit

Someone, somewhere needs to read this blog today.

 

My word to you?  Don't quit.

 

Trust in God during life's disappointments, and don't quit.

 

Some years ago, Kris Kristofferson made a hit record with a song called, "Why Me?".

 

The lyrics began, "Why me, Lord?  What  have I ever done to deserve even one of the pleasures of I have known?"

 

We've all asked the "why" question.

 

Hear are some clichés that I hear frequently (in the midst of disappointments):

 

"Laugh and the world laughs with you; cry and you cry alone."  That's not true.  Crying will draw a bigger crowd any day than laughter.  Can you say the name "Oprah"?

 

"Every day and every way the world is getting better and better."  Okay, have you watched the nightly news lately?

 

"There is a light at the end of every tunnel."  Wow.  There is probably darkness back there at the end of that tunnel.  And the light you see is probably the light of an onrushing train.

 

And finally there is this:  Things are never as bad as they seem."  Dream on!  Things are often worse than they seem!

 

Are you now encouraged?  :)

 

How do you keep going when you want to quit?

 

Have the right perspective.  Know who you are in God.

 

Only God, who is sovereign and living, can be trusted.  We must learn to be willing to trust him even when we cannot penetrate the darkness around us or the hurt within us.

 

Every day you trust in things you can't see.  You wake up in the morning, wipe the sleep from your eyes, and put your feet on the floor.

 

Scientists tell us that's not a floor - it is a whirling mass of atoms.  And this whirling mass of atoms is flying around the world, and the world is spinning. 

 

Now then, if you thought of it that way  - you would jump right back into bed.  Right?  But what do you in actuality do?  You get up, put your feet on the floor trusting that it will stand - and you do that every day. 

 

The Psalmist writes in Psalms 73:28, "But as for me, it is good to be near God.  I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds."

 

The secret of life is not what you have but whose you are.  And that determines what you will become.

 

It is not in what you possess materially but in what you have inwardly.

 

Your strength, my strength, is not found in my anger or disappointment in the inequities of life - life breaking its promises to us - but in our nearness to God who is stronger than your pain and a light for any darkness.

 

You may be angry today, bewildered - and you can't figure out the "why"?  What do we do?  We trust in God.

 

We draw near to God and He will draw near to you - and we keep on keeping on.

 

Don't quit.

 

Just a thought for a Thursday.