You’re not a quitter.

You may think seriously about quitting, but that does not qualify you as a quitter. Be sure: if you are making progress, 1,000 reasons to quit will come your way, and a million discouraging thoughts will swim around in your head.  The enemy will shoot his fiery darts, and they’ll come in the form of whatever he can use to take you out. The decision to press on anyway takes moxie, grit and most importantly deep rooted faith. I believe that you and I have a God given potential to be much tougher than we realize. We can be a finisher not a quitter.

We have to develop a thick skin while maintaining a soft heart.

How do we do that? The answer is drawing on God’s word. Having His word down in us makes us strong and malleable.  And like it or not, a key part of the process is opposition. “Trouble or persecution comes because of the word” Matthew 13:21 tells us.  A word has to be challenged to take root.  The trouble and persecution that comes against us will actually cause the roots of the word to go down deeper inside of us!

God illustrates this for us in nature:

“There was a great experiment in the desert called the biodome. It created a living environment for human, plant and animal life. The biodome was constructed to house an artificial, controlled environment with purified air and water, healthy soil and filtered light. The intent was to afford perfect growing conditions for trees, fruits and vegetables, as well as humans.

People lived in the biodome, for many months at a time, and everything seemed to do well with one exception. When the trees grew to a certain height, they would topple over. It baffled scientists until they realized they forgot to include the natural element of wind. Trees need wind to blow against them because it causes their root systems to grow deeper, which supports the tree as it grows taller.” -Dennis Merritt Jones, D.D.

 

 

 

 

When God allows the winds to come at us, we will withstand it when we draw on the strength of His great word. Every time this happens our roots grow deeper and stronger.

The ultimate example was when Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness while he was fasting. The devil came and put him through a series of tests. Jesus used the word of God to send Satan away defeated. Then from there Jesus began his Galilean ministry, healing multitudes and doing amazing works of power!

With his word and his power we can press through, rooted and strong! Never quit no matter what comes our way!

You’re not a quitter. In Christ you are a finisher.