Have you ever experienced a time in your life when it seems as if when everything was going right. IE When your children were behaving. Your extended families were getting along, basic needs were being met, finances were straight and no bad news from the Dr- in short, things were just good. Then suddenly it seemed like everything that could happen, started happening to you and everything concerning you. What do you do when this happens. Do you fall on your knees and cry out to God, or do you jump into fix it mode and do everything you can to fix the dominos even as they are still falling. Or do you do as so many, do you just throw up your hands and give up or quit.
I’ve been reading and studying a story in the Bible that has not only given me strength to go through, but it has also taught and is teaching me how to get through my go through without complaining or quitting.
Our nugget this morning is simply that “Don’t Quit”
I encourage you to take time today and read the 1st ch of Job. Job ch 1:1-22 for the sake of this nugget, I’ll read the last verse v22
It declares
“In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.”
Of all the biographies in the earth, you will never read biography of great quitters. You will never see a long line of followers behind great quitters. You will never see trophies and awards given to great quitters. There is a man in the Bible who is in the Bible and has a whole book about him in the Bible, because of one thing – his perseverance. He ran the course and didn’t quit, even though he had every reason to. His name was Job.
No man in the Bible, outside of Jesus Christ himself, suffered more than Job. It would even be fair to say that outside of Jesus, no man suffered more unjustly and more unfairly than Job. If Job had responded to the things that happened to him, or even the way the vast majority of people would have, and do, this book would have never been written and Job’s name would have never been known. We learn a great character trait called “perseverance” from this man who teaches us that tough times never last, but tough people do.
So, the next time you think you’ve got problems, go read the book of Job. It may not make you feel better at first, but it will put your problems in perspective. When all of these terrible things started happening to Job, he began to ask the same questions we all would ask, “Why?” and “Why me?” After these questions usually comes the worst question of all: “How do I get out of this?”
The question we should be asking is, “What should I get out of this or what’s my lesson in this?”
As you face difficulties, you are going to learn that problems are not meant to defeat you, depress you, or even discourage you; they are meant to develop you. Problems are not tools to tear you down; they are tests to build you up. So don’t get discouraged when you face tough times. Instead, ask the Lord to help you learn from them and grow from them so that you can point others to Him. After all, winners never quit, and quitters never win. I admonish you to persevere – don’t quit- keep going and win!