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- Never Give Up:
One More Dip In Jordan
Dan Cawthorn, ISBS Student
Never give up! How often do we hear great athletes
say this in their interviews, "we kept on fighting and never
gave up." Usually this means the athlete and his team came
out on the winning side. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb
because he was persistent and he never let his failures get the
best of him or discourage his efforts. Through out history we
remember and honor those people who "never gave up."
Those who were willing to go the extra mile, those are the ones
we remember and those who call it quits are the ones we never
remember.
Hebrews 11, the faith chapter is really about
people who never gave up, what did they have that GOD would record
them and honor them in HIS Book. Noah building the ark, Abraham,
Joseph, Moses, and even King David - these men with their own
stories and different circumstances never gave up, they are remembered.
This reminds me of how my brother learned to swim.
I was a high school senior and my brother, about nine years old.
We were playing in a small lake behind our house; we loved to
row out on the lake on this old raft we made. One day I rowed
out about 20 feet from the shore and called my brother to me.
Knowing he could not swim I promised him I would let him walk
out to the raft. As he walked to the raft and reached out to climb
on, I rowed out 3 or 4 feet, just out of his grasp. "Just
lunge forward a little I'll stay right here." His trust in
big brother gave him the courage to lunge out. For those of you
with little brothers you can guess what happened next.
Yes, I kept moving, just out of his reach. Too
afraid to turn back he would struggle to stay afloat in hope that
I would let him climb aboard. Forty feet, sixty, one hundred,
finally we were in the middle of the lake. As my brother looked
around he knew he could not make it back. But he thought that
there was a slight chance that I would let him on and it was,
only three feet away, he knew that was obtainable. It's only a
short distance away.
"Focus on the raft, look how close it is,
you can do that, don't give up," I told him. As you can guess,
my brother swam all the way across the lake. Full of fear and
a face full of tears he realized he had made it, he had kept fighting,
he never gave up.
Sometimes when we run across a difficult problem
or the task seems too monstrous for us to accomplish, we just
give up. All we had to do was take it at a small chunk at a time.
Just as my brother looked at the three-foot distance instead of
the whole lake at one time, we should take on what we can handle,
little by little. Focus on what's at hand.
You remember Peter, how he walked on water? Well
most of us really remember him loosing focus on JESUS and then
sink into the sea. But the truth is Peter walked on water, (Matthew
6:22-36). As long as Peter stayed focused on JESUS and didn't
look at the storm around him, he was okay. Sometimes things overwhelm
us and it looks as if it's not obtainable but a short three-foot
swim is all we need.
In 2 Kings 6:8-23, story of Elisha and his servant,
a Syrian army camps around the city with a great number of soldiers.
The army had surrounded the city and there is no way to escape.
Elisha's servant comes to him in great fear and anxiety, "What
shall we do?" (2 Kings 6:15). The servant could only see
the problem through his eyes and it looked as if it were an impossible
circumstance to overcome.
Much like today when problems arise or things
look too impossible to prevail our first reaction is to fear the
worst and see only what is in front of us without realizing that
there may be a simple solution. Our confusion mixed with fear
causes us to create an impossible scenario and a problem with
no hope of resolution.
Elisha had insight into the problem, a solution
that we as Christians need to understand. In 2Kings 6:16, Elisha
knew, "for those who are with us are more than those who
are with them." He prayed that GOD would open the eyes of
the servant so he could see what Elisha and GOD saw (2 Kings 6:17).
As Christians we need to look through GOD's eyes and see things
as GOD sees them. By doing this the problems become nothing but
a triumph for GOD. The servant's eyes were opened and he could
see GOD's army surrounded the Syrian army on the hilltop. GOD
has our problems covered and HE promises us HE will be with us,
"always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).
GOD deals in glory not problems. Philippians 4:13,
"We can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens me."
Instead of merely looking for solutions, let's look to see how
GOD can be glorified. If the servant had known what Elisha already
knew he too would not have feared the Syrian army. Romans 8:31,
"If GOD is for us who can be against us?" Let's see
through GOD's eyes and we'll never give up.
Nine or ten years ago I met a grandmother who
lived in one of the projects I minister to and work with. I started
studying with her, sharing with her GOD's Word. It was a slow
process, getting her close to obeying the Gospel. For nine years
we studied, struggled and at times it seemed we were getting farther
away rather than drawing her closer. How easy it could have been
to give up, walk away. I was wasting my energy and time on this
lady when I could focus on a more receptive person. When do you
call it quits, one year, two, or eight years, when?
To make a long story short she was baptized nine
and a half years after we first started studying. If I had quit
after nine years, would she have obeyed GOD's plea? Whose time
are we working on, ours or GOD's? Psalm 130:5-6 says, "I
wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in HIS Word I put my hope".
"Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and
will not delay" (Habakkuk 2:3). And Psalm 27: 14, "
Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait on the LORD".
We must let GOD do HIS thing on HIS timetable not on ours.
Give Up! When do we know it's time to give up
or do we? We can see in 2 Kings 5:1-14, how Naaman came to be
cleansed of his leprosy and when he received his instructions,
how he reacted. First of all he became upset when he found out
he had to go see a prophet instead of the king and his court.
Then Elisha sent his servant out to deal with him, made him even
angrier. All of this and then he hears what he must do. This was
not the way Naaman would have done it and if it were he would
have picked better rivers to do it in. Seven dips in the muddy
Jordan.
When do you quit, five times in the Jordan, six
times? No, one more dip in the Jordan. When is enough, enough?
If Naaman had quit at five or six times nothing would have happened.
It was the next dip that counted. When does our next dip count,
when does our next dip work? Maybe we quit one dip short of being
cleansed. Like the grandmother I studied with, my dip was nine
and a half years not eight, not nine, but nine and a half. We
don't know GOD's timetable so giving up might be one dip short.
Don't bite off too much, focus on what's at hand.
Remember, try to see things through GOD's eyes; "we can do
all things through HIM who strengthens us." DIP one more
time in Jordan; Never give up.
Dan Cawthon