Are You Weary?
What would you think of a sports team that gave up before the game was over? Maybe the other team has a big lead. The players begin to say, “We can’t win so we won’t try our hardest.” We want that team to go the distance, don’t we?
Life is full of things that cause us to want to sometimes just give up. Perhaps we think, “What’s the use. I can’t get any better. I’m going to lose anyway, so I will just quit trying.”
Sometimes we may begin to say that about our religious beliefs as well. We pray, we try, but nothing changes that we can see so why keep trying to be faithful. We can’t see any definite results like we would like so we just give up.
Paul wrote to the Christians in Galatia and encouraged them to, “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” Galatians 6:9 (NASB) Here is a church who had started listening to the false teachers, and Paul rebuked them in chapter 1. Men had come in to Galatia and were teaching a different doctrine from what Paul had shared with them. He would tell them, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!” (Galatians 1:7-9) By the end of this letter to the Galatians, Paul is telling them to not give up. Don’t stop being the disciple of Christ that you need to be. And if you do, you will reap what God desires of you.
How important it is for each of us to make sure we are not giving up on God. So many bad things may be happening in our lives. We aren’t as healthy as we once were. The family situation has deteriorated. Our country is having crises of every kind. It seems as if God is not listening to us.
I can assure you today that God is still on the throne. He knows what is going on in our lives. If we will stay the course of righteousness, He will bless us in the end. And if we don’t, He has a placed prepared for all of those who do not continue to be faithful to Him. It is a place of eternal destruction. There is nothing good about this place but God expects us to be faithful to Him.
Are you growing weary? Are you about to give up? Just remember the words of the Apostle Paul and keep on keepin’ on.