Don’t Give Up
Last week, Cyndi and I were given some tickets to go to the Houston Rodeo. This was the first one we have been to in about five years when our grandson was there. We saw the calf roping, bronco riding, bull riding, calf wrestling and the barrel racing. I am still hurting in my back from watching them be tossed around like a feather. How do they do that without having every bone in their body broken?
One other thing we saw was the calf scramble. Children are given the opportunity to catch a calf and get it into a designated area in the arena. It was hilarious watching the young people chasing a calf, catching up to it and then dragging it to the place they had to put it.
One little lady was so set on a calf that she caught it, started pulling it, and the calf balked. She was not to be outdone, however. She clung to that calf like her life depended on it. The calf did everything it could to get away, but she was having nothing to do with that. At one point, she was under the calf, holding on and being pulled along. She never gave up, and eventually she was able to get the calf to the area she needed to.
As I thought about this, I thought about how we face life sometimes. There are times when troubles come to us and rather than hold on, we give in to them. At other times, we hold on for a while, but eventually think that it is not worth the effort. Sometimes, we have people around us telling us we cannot achieve what we are desiring to do and we listen to that bad advice and give up. And at other times, like this young lady, we hold on tight with great determination of reaching the goal.
In our Christian life, we are called to stay faithful to Jesus and not give up. Listen to Paul in Galatians 6:9, “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” (NASB) Paul was urging the Christians to never give up. Even when it seems as if there is no way out, we are to stay faithful to God, and He will deliver us. Not everything that happens is good, but God will help us when the temptations of life come. “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13) We need to look for God’s way in our lives and not our own.
Are you staying faithful to the God who cares so much for you, or have you become discouraged and given up? There is something wonderful for the person who is willing to obey God and remain faithful—heaven!