June 8 – Don't cut the thread

“....being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light” – Colossians 1:11-12

I think there are some of you out there that are just hanging on by a thread. You are oh so close to giving up. Don't.

It might be that you have lived with an intolerable situation for so very long and you don't think you can do it any longer. Maybe you have a dream that has never come to pass and you figure by now it isn't going to so why not just forget it? Or maybe you have prayed a prayer that has seemingly gone unanswered forever and you can hardly stand to pray it one more time. You wonder if God has simply said "no" and you can't get it through your thick skull – I know from recent experience how that feels. God was answering but I obviously wasn't listening. In the end He waited until I was asleep and got His answer through to me.

Who wanted me to give up? Certainly not God. God wants to encourage us to press forward and hang in there. Satan, on the other hand, wants us to spiral down into a pool of failure and quitting. Once he's got us to stop trying, stop dreaming, stop praying - he has won his battle for our minds.

The apostle Paul felt just what you now feel and this is what he said; "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me." (Philippians 3:13-14) There's no way Paul was ready to give up the prize. God used adversity and long term struggles to give him something better than he even hoped for.

Stay with it. Don't cut the thread! Call upon God's grace and wisdom. Lean on him even more than you already have. Trust in Him to give you a fresh ability – the strength, to move forward once again.

(Acknoledgements Hannah's Cupboard)

Whatever you do, “Don't Give Up When You're Down” - our music for today. Click on the picture to listen.