1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Have you ever felt like quitting or giving up at some point in life? Have you ever been so discouraged that you just don’t know what to do? At some point in our life, we experience difficulties that make us question God’s governance and guidance of our life.
Have you ever been to the point where life is a roller coaster for you? Life seems to throw one thing after another at you. You try to adjust and you just can’t seem to adjust. You try to do everything you know how to do but your situation does not improve. Life has a way of pressing us to the point where we feel like we can’t make it. What do you do when you are at the point where you are about to say, “I quit”? What do you do when you have prayed, fasted, cried, searched the scripture for a solution and nothing seems to work?
The Apostle Paul encourages us through this text not to give up. He writes this letter to the church at Corinth. He writes to a church that is divided with discipline and doctrinal issues. In this particular chapter false teachers challenged the resurrection of Christ. Paul writes to encourage the believers in the church to stand on the truth that they had been taught. The truth taught by the resurrection of Christ suggests that no matter how low life knocks you down, God has the power to resurrect you. God has the power to resurrect and revive the deadest looking situation.
This chapter teaches us we will always be challenged by naysayers while we are living for Christ. Our victory or defeat is hinged on how devoted we are to the word of God. We have to make sure we have a firm grip on the word of God. How strong of a grip do you have on the word of God my friend? Perhaps you are experiencing some type of trial for standing on the truth. I encourage you to keep standing. The enemy wants to move you from standing for God. Stand your ground and remain focused on the work God has entrusted to you. God has a reward for you in the end. The race is not given to the swift, or the battle to the strong, but it is given to the one that endures until the end.
God bless and keep you is my prayer.
1 comment:
I like it Hodge! Muscle doesn't get stronger unless there is resistance. Our loving Heavenly Father through His power knows that for us to progress we must go through trial and tribulation. To quit would be to deny ourselves of the sweet reward at the end. Below is a quote that helps me any time I start losing perspective in the trials of life. Keep these posts coming!
Ruggles
“The myopic and despairing soul – cry and question, “If there is a God, why does He permit suffering?” reflects a basic failure to understand the very nature of life with its components of chastening and suffering. And as for that question, it is not difficult to imagine who originated it, however understandably sincere some are who raise it. The question strikes at the heart of Father’s plan, because it comes from him who rejected that plan! The future duties to be given to some of us in the worlds to come by an omniscient God will require of us an earned sense of esteem as well as proof of our competency. Thus the tests given to us here are given not because God is in doubt as to the outcome, but because we need to grow in order to be able to serve with full effectiveness in the eternity to come. Further, to be untested and unproven is also to be unaware of all that we are. If we are unknowing of our possibilities, with what could we safely be entrusted? Could we in ignorance of our capacities trust ourselves? Could others then be entrusted to us? Thus the relentless love of our Father in heaven is such that in His omniscience, He will not allow the cutting short some of the brief experiences we are having here. To do so would be to deprive us of everlasting experiences and great joy there. What else would an omniscient and loving Father do, even if we plead otherwise? He must at times say no. Furthermore, since there was no exemption from suffering for Christ, how can there be one for us? Do we really want immunity from adversity? Especially when certain kinds of suffering can aid our growth in this life? To deprive ourselves of those experiences, much as we might momentarily like to, would be to deprive ourselves of the outcomes over which we shouted with anticipated joy when this life’s experiences were explained to us long ago in the world before we came here.”
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