Don't Give Up Now!

 

History books are filled with biographies of failures who made good. From them we can learn the valuable lesson that failure need not be fatal. The first President of the United States—the father of our country—lost two-thirds of the battles he fought during the Revolutionary War. But George Washington won the war, founded a nation, and succeeded brilliantly in spite of those failures. Who failed more than Babe Ruth? In a base­ball career that spanned 21 years, the immortal slugger hit 714 home runs, but he struck out 1,330 times. Until he retired in 1935, this fa­mous failure was baseball’s biggest attraction. Just because one fails at some point in life does not necessarily mean he or she is a failure. After Edison had experimented 10,000 times with his storage battery and still could not get it to work, a friend tried to comfort him. “Why l have not failed,” Ed­ison replied. “I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Nearly deaf and with only three months of formal schooling, Thomas A. Edison patented more than 1,000 inventions. During his 60 years of reaching toward the unknown, Edison failed more than he suc­ceeded. But who would call Edison a failure?

Dear Members and Friends of the Church, I secretly visited your Bible classes recently and was overjoyed to see that so many of you had not come. I heard some lessons that were not very well prepared, and some teachers said that no visits had been made during the week. I was simply delighted! It thrilled me to see some leave the worship service right after the Lord’s Supper was over, indicating that they were not going to let the proclamation of God’s Word come near to them. I saw some others come just in time for the beginning of worship to sit glassy eyed with their mouths shut while only a few sang the hymns. Then they dosed or acted bored to death while the preacher went through his Sunday morning ritual and humdrum or ‘bore-a-story.’ I was especially pleased to note how many sheepish donations were given and how many failed to even bring an offering. I love to see the church in financial difficulty. Again, there was a sparkle in my eye when I returned Sunday night and saw that so many had not returned for the evening worship hour. I was extremely glad. I am writing this note to encourage you to forsake the worship this coming Sunday. It will be more comfortable for you, and besides, it will make my work much easier to do. Hoping to be with you soon! Deceitfully yours, The Devil.

[Hebrews 10:19-39] “…do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a little while, ‘He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.’ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.” Is it a sin to fail? The answer is both yes and no. It is a sin when failure is due to moral or spiritual laxness or to laziness. But it is not a sin to fail when one has done his best, within the will of God, and the results were not what he wanted. One must not be so afraid of life that one refuses to try. We don’t have to succeed, but we do have to give life a run for its money. Take heart! If life has put you on the canvas and pummeled the breath out of you, it is still too early to quit. If you feel you must quit, then do it the day after tomorrow. You may have lost the battle today, but you could win the war tomorrow. As Grantland Rice, America’s first great sportswriter, put it, “When Jesus comes to judge us, He will not be so concerned about whether we won or lost, but how we played the game!” God will measure you by your faithfulness (Revelation 20:11-15).