The Urge To Quit Always Comes Just Before Your Greatest Triumph

IF YOU’RE GOING TO GIVE-IN, AT LEAST DO IT PROPERLY!

What has God put you on this planet for? Chances are you don’t have to stress too much about discovering it. You have probably already found that God has placed within you certain abilities, certain passions, which cause you to continually see the same need. Chances are also that when you apply yourself to meeting those needs you have gained a tremendous sense of satisfaction and fulfilment in the process. Yet, despite this, there will occasionally be times of discouragement when all you want to do is give-up. But it’s at these times when you must especially be careful to do it properly!

Joseph was given a dream from God that he would one day become a powerful governor. After spending more than ten years in an Egyptian prison, we would have forgiven him for giving up and for thinking that God had abandoned him. But if he had, he would have missed his moment! Joseph remained faithful to God, day in, and day out. 

Moses was called to be the deliverer of Israel from Egypt. But he made a mistake and failed. This led him to flee into the desert. I wonder if he thought that God would rescue him from his woes in a short time. But he didn’t hear from God again for another 40 years! He never completely gave-up!

It seems to me that the most successful people are those who have learned to hang-in when the temptation to give-in is nearly overwhelming. They are prepared to give to take one more step, have one more go, knock on one more door, write one more song, play one more tournament, do one more day. 

I recently spoke with a successful businessman who had gone four months without making a dollar in his new business. He had exhausted his reserves and had lay off each of his staff. Despondent but not despairing he gave it one more shot. “I was ready to throw it all in and stack shelves in a supermarket” he said. “But then God gave me a break. I met someone I could help. That led to another person I could help, and then another who referred me to another. In the first three months of this year I’ve done $17,000,000 worth of transactions and am on track to generate over a million dollars in profits this year!” 

Not all of us are in business, but we should all be in God’s business of helping others in Jesus’ Name. Yet when you’re trying to do good by others and help them, it can get quite discouraging when they don’t appreciate it or are even rude in return. I recently heard Jossy Chacko tell his story of having a Christian Grandmother who prayed fervently for young Jossy to come to know Christ. Jossy ridiculed such praying. He told his ageing Grandmother not to waste her time on him. But she kept going – month after month, year after year. She died never seeing the answer to her prayers for her Grandson. Today though, Jossy is an in-demand preacher and conference speaker who heads up the Empart Church Planting organisation which helps to facilitate over 9,000 churches across northern India.

We should not easily lose heart in our pursuit of doing the will of God.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9

This admonition not only applies to each of us, it also especially applies to us as a church. Too many churches are set back because someone gives up after taking offence at something someone said or did (or didn’t say or didn’t do). It’s too easy to give up on each other or those who are trying to reach. The cousin of not giving up is patience. There will be some people we will reach who will take years and years to see won to the Lover Of Their Soul. Whenever I get frustrated with some of the things that our non-Christian politicians say, I have to remind myself to pray for their salvation and be patient. When the story of our church is told to generations to come – long after you and I have gone onto our true Home – I trust we will be remembered for our faithful prayer and proclamation to our generation and that we didn’t give up. The proper way to give-up is to at least give it one more shot.  

Pastor Andrew Corbett

A CHAMPION'S HANDICAP

In F.W. Boreham's all-time classic collection of essays- Mushrooms On The Moor, he has an excellent piece on the place of handicaps. He notes that champions relish handicaps while the mediocre are daunted by them. He describes watching a handicap foot race where the champion was severely handicapped. Boreham thought this was most unjust. As he viewed the race's finish he saw that despite the champion being the last to start the race he had chased down the field to end up winning the race. The great pastor went over to the great runner to investigate whether they shared a sense of injustice about this handicapping.

Boreham was mildly surprised at the champion's response. Far from being daunted by the handicap the champion actually relished the opportunity to compete both with the field of competitors and himself. Himself? Boreham was intrigued. The champion explained that it was only when he truly felt challenged to go beyond where he had previously been that he could be satisfied that he had given his best.

Handicaps don't daunt champions.

It was some time after this when Boreham attended a Missions Conference where the speaker appealed to his audience to give like they'd never given before so that the Gospel could be taken to the four corners of the world. This speaker shared how he had as a young man longed to go himself to the Missions field but was denied by his denominational leaders due to his physical short-comings. This was a major setback for this aspiring missionary. He was somewhat handicapped physically. But he was not daunted by his handicap. He applied his mind to understand commerce and business. In this arena he proved himself a champion. As a result, he told the Conference, he was able to do more for missions by enabling more missionaries to serve than he could if he had gone himself. He had dealt with his handicap like a champion!

But then Boreham laments that in his church experience up until 1915, he had found too few men within the church with a champion spirit. Instead, he had found too many men who were too easily daunted by even the slightest handicap. They were too busy to serve, too financially committed to give, too nervous to lead or too tired to share. What the church needs, sighs the great pastor, is men with a champion spirit.

I have just finished reading the autobiography of Peter J. Daniels. It's hard not to imagine that what F.W. Boreham lamented around 1915 would have delighted him around 1985 if he had someone like Peter Daniels in his church. Mr Daniels, who I have invited to Launceston in November this year, at one point served on several international MIssions boards based in Singapore and L.A., and several Australian Missions Boards (including Youth For Christ) while he ran several business enterprises. At this point in his life, Mr Daniels says he was "stretched". Now in his late 70s, he is still going strong. He serves the Lord with a passion. He speaks in more churches across Australia and the USA than any other speaker on the planet. He gives more to the work of missions than perhaps anyone in history. But perhaps most impressively, is positioning his life for maximum impact for hundreds of years after his life on earth expires. Mr Boreham might well describe Mr Daniels as a man who was never daunted by his handicaps, but like any other champion learned to overcome them.

May God give us more such champions within the church.

Andrew Corbett