“God is our refuge and strength, avery present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1 KJV)
We have all faced challenges in life; obstacles that seemed immoveable, figurative mountains with heights that seemed too high to scale and too wide to go around. We have faced challenges in all aspects of our lives; in relationships that we have been trying to revive or raise to higher heights, in regards to skill sets that we have been trying to enhance to advance our careers that have been interrupted, praying for jobs to surface so we can continue on our paths toward progress. Many have faced crisis in marriages and the meaning of family which has taken on a more significant meaning than before the pandemic. We have faced the challenge of making disciples in a mandated distancing environment and those challenges have combined with the challenge of trying to convince particular people, specific persons in our orbits and our ordinary lives, to come to Christ Jesus. And let’s be honest about it! At times we have been ready to give up. It’s Sunday morning, so let me give you a pre-worship service lesson entitled, “Don’t Give Up.”
Let me use a real life story to present you with a more positive approach to all the challenging situations you face similar to the aforementioned challenges. Only you know what you are really about to give up on. Here’s the story. I don’t go in my backyard much at all. Probably over the 27 years we have lived here, you can count the number of times I have been in the backyard on your fingers. One of the few times I did go back there was in the late spring when the grass was growing high, as if trying to reach up and feel the color of the blue sky. I brought a push lawnmower and started to tackle it. To get the grass at a level where the yard looked different, I had to cut the grass three times! Oh, and it is a big yard. Before I moved in, it was “the yard” for kids to come play football and baseball games. Tired and exhausted after the first time I mowed the yard, I had the good sense to call for some help. I have five boys, but they were involved in sports and I didn’t ask them to tackle the task because of a slight incline in the yard and I wanted to avoid any possibility of them getting hurt. I was not spoiling them or, was I? Just being unselfish and caring, right? Regardless, I knew when it was time for me to call for some help. I didn’t give up. I just called for someone who had the ability, the power, and tools to do the job. What’s the lesson? Don’t give up! Call for help! I suggest you call on the One who can help you with your issue, your irritating problem, your seemingly impenetrable predicament, and any interrupting thing that messes with your peace! Call on the Lord! He is a very present help in times of trouble.
Call on the Lord! One songwriter wrote, “I turned it over to the Lord and He worked it out!” He approves of that declaration, by adding the lyrics, “Oh yeah! Another songwriter wrote, “Don’t give up! It’s going to take a miracle.” And then that songwriter, not to be outdone by the first songwriter, reminded listeners where the source of our help resides, “Because God is still on the throne!” Whatever you are facing now, keep praying for God’s help, petition for God’s intervention, and plea for God’s power to change what you think is unchangeable, fix the unfixable, and get accomplished what you cannot do alone. Don’t give up! Maybe you didn’t hear me! Don’t give up! Have a great worship experience today with the pre-worship lesson that I have provided you staying on your mind. What’s that I hear? I hear someone saying my problem is too big? Well let me advice you to read how David handled a big problem; a problem called Goliath. Maybe then you will not give up! Be blessed!
“But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” (I Samuel 17:34-37 NIV)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King