Title: Prayers For Those Times When We Feel Like Quitting

Date: 2009-03-29

Reference: Phil. 3: 12-16

Every day life is filled with events that can knock the wind out of us and beat us down. Some days we try to get up and here comes another blow, and we get pushed down again. Health issues, relationships, accidents, tragedies, disappointments can all knock us off our feet and cause us to lose our balance. While we may be on top of the world one minute, the next moment may pull us under.

We know life is not always easy but it’s not always difficult either. If we are honest we will admit we have many more pleasant moments than painful ones. But life is sometimes very difficult and in those times we are often tempted to quit on hope and quit on God.

In those moments we are invited to pray. Prayer helps us go on when the roof is caving in at the same time the floor is falling out from under us and the walls are crashing in around us. In painful, difficult, confusing times we must not give up on hope or walk away from God. Rather than doubting God or turning away from God, we should cling to God with all our might.

We live in a world where we are going to get knocked down. We get back up by remembering God really does care for us. In times when we are worn out and tired, ready to throw in the towel we come to God in prayer. This world of ours can be a hard place and we know by experience life is not fair. There are times when we feel alone and it seems like no one is interested or listening. Faith assures us God can help.

When we are finished feeling sorry for ourselves we remember God cares about everything, large things and small issues in life. God cares enough to finish in us what he has started. God allows us to finish well.

An artist began to paint a picture. The first strokes on the canvas didn’t make any sense at all. There seemed to be no form, order, clarity. He continued adding stroke after stroke until after a while the picture began to take shape. Finally the painting was finished. During the process the painting didn’t make sense, but when it was completed it was a beautiful picture. In the corner of the canvas the artist signed his name. His signature says he cared enough to finish what he started.

Following this example, God cares about the big picture and God cares about the small strokes. God give us the ability to be faithful through it all. And in those moments when life doesn’t seem to make any sense we pray for strength. Paul said in Phil 1:6: “God, who began a good work in us, will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

As we are working on our life canvas there will be those moments. I think of Job. Job was a righteous man who was very rich. Even after losing everything he owned and suffering from a terrible sickness still confessed his trust in God, his love for God. Job suffered terribly. He said: “If all my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales, it would surely outweigh the sand of the seas. Though He slay me, yet will I hope in God.” Job’s wife was helpful as she told him to curse God and die. Job wisely replied: “Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?”

People of faith have always trusted in God during the hard times as well as the good times. People of faith have believed that with God’s help and strength it is possible to rise from the ashes.

With God’s help obstacles are meant to be prayerfully hurdled. A devout Christian believer saw his parents brutally murdered in North Vietnam. He escaped and moved to the South. There he attended school and became a contractor. He prospered until he was arrested on a family visit to the North. He was imprisoned for three years until he escaped and made his way south again. There he was arrested as a spy for the North. When he learned the United States was pulling out of South Vietnam, he sold everything he had in exchange for passage on an overcrowded fishing boat. He was picked up on the high seas and taken to the Philippines where he languished in a refugee camp for two years. Finally, after all of that, he was allowed to come to the United States. Once he was here he and his new wife took a job in a tailor shop. They were determined to make it. The couple lived in the back of the shop and saved every penny. In two years they had saved enough to buy the business. Today he is a millionaire . Hard work and frugal living made his dream a reality. He says: “Faith in God and hope for a better life made all the difference.” In those many times when he was discouraged and felt like quitting, he prayed to God and worked hard. That combination never fails.

Again from the book of Phil. We are reminded how “We can do all things through Christ who gives us strength.” (4:13) Another man with huge faith was Irwin Rosenberg a Junior Naval Officer who was discharged from the military after he was diagnosed with cancer. That was the standard procedure at the time.

He was determined, with God’s help, to get back both his health and his career. With faith and determination he battled his disease. At one point he was only given two weeks to live, but he fought on and won his battle. Then he focused his attention on his desire to be a naval officer. He faced obstacle after obstacle and felt like quitting on his dream. One person said: “It would take an act of congress to get you reinstated.” That is exactly what he decided to pursue, an act of congress. The President of the United States eventually signed into law a special bill that allowed him to be reinstated. He eventually became a real admiral in the United States 7th fleet. Where there is a will there is a way. When our will lines up with God’s will, with His help we can accomplish anything.

Today’s Scripture lesson with others from Philippians I have already quoted were a witness from prison. This very inspiring letter was not written from the deck of a cruise ship but from the depths of a Roman prison cell. Paul says, no matter the outward circumstances, one thing is important. A relationship with God through Christ. Paul described the Christian life as a race.

While the world is controlled by the past, the Christian running the race of life looks to the future. There was a cartoon in the papers this week about a little boy who insisted on walking everywhere backwards. It didn’t turn out all that well as he kept bumping into poles and other obstacles. Imagine a race in which the contestants constantly looked back to see where they had been.

The past is important. I love history and reading about the past. We are able to learn from the past, including a painful past. But we are called to pick ourselves up and become future oriented. To forget doesn’t mean we are never going to recall the past.

We are reminded we cannot undue the past, or live in the past, or change anything about the past. But because of God’s Grace, we are no longer tied to the past. Forgetting the past means living for the future. We cannot change the past, but with God’s help we can change the meaning of the past. Painful experiences and memories can inspire us to speed ahead. In those moments, the events of the past did not change, but our understanding of them changed.

In the 45th chapter of Genesis Joseph was reunited with his brothers in Egypt. Years before they had mistreated him and sold him as a slave. But in Egypt, God prospered Joseph. He became a government official and one day the tables were turned. He was powerful and he brothers were not. He held no grudge against them. The brothers had mistreated him, sold him into slavery, and kept him away from his loved ones. Joseph landed on his feet and he saw the painful past from God’s point of view. Joseph knew God had planned a race for him to run. In fulfilling God’s plan, Joseph was able to break the power of the past.

Too many Christians are shacked by the power of the past and by painful burdens. Too many are trying to run the race backwards. No wonder we stumble and fall and get in the way of other Christians who are also running the race. Some are distracted by past success which is just as bad. Things which are behind must be set aside and things which are before us must take their place. We press on. There are two extremes to avoid. One is the feeling that “I must do it all.” The other is “God must do it all.” The Christian runner realizes God is in control, and God is working through us.

When we are discouraged we pray.

God works in us so that He might work through us. We never allow a problem to keep us down or to become an excuse. I’ve always believed Christianity is the most optimistic of all the faith expressions, because we are hopeful. But hope is much more than optimism. Someone has described optimism as a person who sets up all the folding chairs for Wed. Night Bible Study. An optimist is a person who makes plans to meet his or her spouse at 7:50 following a 7:00 church meeting. An optimist is a person who puts his shoes back on after the preacher says ‘In conclusion.’ We are hopeful because Jesus premised to be withes always and forever.”

As Christians we are not so much concerned with what has happened to us as we are concerned about an unlimited future in front of us. Faith is God keeps us going. Hope for a brighter and better future keeps us focused. Even in times when we feel like quitting, we come to God in prayer and we receive the courage we need to get up off the floor where hard times have pushed us down.