You Should Just Give Up

In Junior high, I was experimenting. I was playing football for school and I was in the school band. I didn’t know anything about either so I was giving both a shot. The band director gave me the French horn to play, which is a hard instrument. Every day at football practice, I thought about throwing in the towel since I was so small. Eventually, the band director, Mr. Hicks, told me I needed to choose: it’s either football or band Hall; which do you choose. So I gave up on band and dedicated the rest of my years (7-12 grades) playing football. It was the right choice for me.

Each one of us have moments in our life when we have to choose. There are difficulties and hardships. When hard moments come, it’s the enemy, Satan, trying to get you to choose to give up your relationship with God and other people. Jesus said that the enemy came to kill, steal and destroy. That’s all Satan cares about.

One dude in the Old Testament who experienced the full force of choices was a guy named Job. His story is one of the oldest recorded stories in the Bible. Job was very blessed by God. Job worshiped God every day and kept God in the primary place in his life. Job had lots of wealth, property and a huge family with 10 children. But Satan wanted to press Job into leaving his relationship with God so Satan created difficulty and chaos.

Satan had groups of people come in and steal all his livestock and kill all his servants. Satan also created a storm that destroyed the house all ten children were in, killing all of them. But even after all of that destruction, Job 1:20-21 says that Job worshiped God.

My guess is you also have had tough moments in your life. Maybe your marriage is not in a good place right now or your adult children are walking away from God. It could be your working through a prolonged illness or cancer treatments. Maybe you were hit hard in the market and investments and now you realize you’ll need to work a few more years before retiring. It could be you’ve been carrying around the shame and guilt from past mistakes, unaltered habits, or secret sin. These all are difficult moments where you must make a choice.

But like Job, we must realize your story doesn’t have to be defined by what happens to you; it should be defined by how you respond. As a follower of Jesus, we know difficult life moments are going to come. That’s a promise. Like Job, we must realize the script is already written for us in how we respond. Don’t buy the lie from Satan that you should just give up. Don’t let him sway you from the truth that Jesus has given us.

Like Job in chapter 19, we can say, “I know that my Redeemer lives!”. Jesus told us he’ll never leave us nor forsake us. He’s with us until the end. There are going to be storms in our lives. It’s just Satan trying to get us to walk away from our relationships with those we love, including God.

So, stay the course. Be resolute. Don’t back down. Make the choice to continue to walk with God through the storm. He’s with you. He’s got you by the hand and he’s not letting go. Blessings on the journey.

Seems Always a Storm.

2020 was a record year for named storms to hit the US mainland. We had 12 named storms which shattered the old record of 9 storms set in 1916. 6 of those storms were hurricane force and did $37 billion in damage. Interestingly, in 1954, meteorologists began naming storms after their girlfriends or wives. (I make no correlation here)! But in 1979, men’s names were added to options for naming storms. In our lives, there always seems to be a storm going on.

In your life, you may be enduring the storm of divorce. You could be battling depression. The storm could look like financial distress or an extended illness. A friend of mine once told me, “You’re either in a storm, coming out of storm, or there’s a storm just around the corner.” In other words, life is a series of storms you must navigate.

However, you never allow the presence of a storm to cause you to doubt the presence of God. God is always with you. That is literally what the name of Jesus means. Matthew 1:23 reads, “They will name him Immanuel which means God is with Us.”

But there are moments when the storm rages. You can loose hope. I’ve sat with many who have said there was no hope for their marriage. They found no hope to ever locate a job. There was no hope to be healthy again. It seemed hopeless to ever conceive a child or climb out of debt.

Sometimes we blame the Devil. That’s appropriate but sometimes our storm is because of things we did. Sometimes, we spent too much money keeping up with the Jones’ and now we are in financial hardship. Sometimes we let our emotions get the best of us. We said things to people we love we can’t take back. Sometimes we procrastinated and now we are between a rock and hard place. Sometimes, it’s our fault.

But there are times we are in the storm when it wasn’t our fault. Our parents divorced and we are in the middle of the family storm through no fault of our own. The company you worked for made poor financial decisions and now you’re out of a job. You trusted someone but they didn’t show up and you were left holding the bag. Sometimes you are enduring a storm that you did not create.

There is an incredible miracle and ministry moment in Mark 4. Jesus has been preaching and teaching. He has been performing miracles and healing the sick. It’s the end of the day and he is exhausted. Jesus and the disciples find themselves at the Sea of Galilee so they get in a boat and push out to the middle. Almost right away, Jesus falls asleep. But in the middle of the night a massive storm blows up. Thunder and lightening. Wind and huge waves. Water is coming into the boat. So finally, the disciples wake up Jesus and ask, “Don’t you care if we drown?”

Jesus asks, “Do you still have no faith?” Then he stands and commands, “Peace be still”. Immediately, the wind dissipates and the waves disappear. The sea is like glass. The stars are shining through. It is still. And the disciples whisper, “Who is this that even the wind and waves obey him?” They found peace because Jesus was with them.

But peace is not found in the absence of a storm. Rather in the presence of Jesus! Jesus said in John’s gospel, “In this world you will have trouble but take heart, I have overcome the world.” My faith isn’t in what I see but in what God says. My faith isn’t in the boat but in who commands the wind and waves. My faith isn’t in the ship but in the one who made trees that made the ship.

You can’t control how big the storm is or the damage it does. You can’t control what people do to you or say about you. You can control what you believe and how to project that belief on those around you.

Psalms 46:1-3 reminds me that God is our refuge and our strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So even if I loose my job, I believe God. If my relationship falls apart, I trust God. If the economy is shaky, I will trust in God. If I feel isolated and alone, I believe God is with me. Even if a virus runs rampant in the nation, I trust God. If my candidate looses the election, I have faith in my God. I will not be afraid because my God is alive and walks beside me!

You see, peace is not in the absence of the storm but the presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords. “Look! the virgin will conceive and bear a son. They will call him Immanuel which means God is with Us.” God is with you this holiday season and beyond. Feel his presence. Call on him to direct you and defend you. He’s the greatest gift you and I will ever receive. Blessings on the journey.