"From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life."
(Jn. 6:66-68)
When asked if I ever feel like quitting, my answer has always been the same, "YES!, I've lost count of the hundreds of times." But I add, "I honestly don't know how to quit. I never learned. It is not found in my spiritual vocabulary dictionary. Therefore, I have no definition of what it means or how to go about it." All I have in the way of its meaning is in observing the lives of those who have. And that is not a pretty sight to behold.
I have heard some say the reason saints give up is that they have given up on themselves, I respectfully disagree: they gave up on God. They stopped believing that He can change a person, that He can pull one out of the miry clay, that He can deliver from anything, that He can cause the chains to fall off, that He is more powerful than the world, the flesh, or the devil. They ceased believing, "He is able."
Winston Churchill was one of my heroes during the 2nd World War. I have always found inspiration from his speech during the darkest days of that war:
“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
As the quip says, "Winners never quit and quitters never win." Many Christians have made it a life, you might say they have made an art of quitting. To go back is to return to the hog pen, to the vomit (says the Bible), to rot and ruin, to the stench of death. The only thing that awaits those who quit is a life of shame, remorse, and regret. They never look up again!
O, dear child of God, if you're tottering on this fence of decision, I beg you to consider C. S. Lewis' wise comment. "A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later."
By An Old Disciple
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