Don’t Let It Beat You!
This past week found me working diligently on two difficult projects. The first is redoing our website. I don’t know much about website design, but I’m learning. It isn’t the most “enjoyable” of projects for me: it is quite a time-consuming effort, especially when I don’t understand the instructions. The second is another computer-related project. Somehow, I’ve locked myself out of being able to access the computer I use for presenting PowerPoint charts! Again, I’ve searched diligently online for instructions as to how to unlock it, but all to no avail – so far! But my determination to get both projects completed is an adage a dear brother in Christ taught me many years ago. Greg Sharp told me, “Regardless of your challenge, don’t let it beat you.” With that, he added Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Read that verse again and notice the wording. The KJV uses the word “which,” while most other translations use the word “who,” giving the attention of the strength to Christ, the source of our strength. But note from Young’s Literal Translation the wording: “For all things I have strength, in Christ's strengthening me.” Does this not make clear the fact that Christ is not only the ONE strengthening us, but the ENERGY (thus the “which”) strengthening us?
For those of us who devote a considerable amount of time to studying the scriptures, we realize there are several things we still just don’t understand. We continue to study, and in that study, investigate every passage regarding the subject. We must be careful to keep each passage within its context, lest we wrestle the scriptures to our own destruction (cf. 2 Peter 3:15 – 16). Even with this diligence, and carefully following the instructions from one verse to the next, we sometimes miss something of importance and our conviction remains unsolved. Can we give up and say, “I’ll never get this.” NO! We can’t let the challenge beat us! Keep searching! Keep studying! Remember 2 Peter 1:3, and realize the answer is in His word: we just need to keep studying to find it! We cannot compromise His word, nor twist it to our desired conclusion. We must accept the conclusion GOD gives and be satisfied with His answer.
The same is true of our service to God. Some have been severely challenged when asked to visit various souls: the sick, the wayward, the distressed, the confined, etc. They offer assorted reasons in an attempt to defend their reluctance, but the reality is they are “uncomfortable” in doing so. Without trying, they are defeated! Wayne Gretzky, the famed hockey player, said, “You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don't take.” He was right! You will never know you “can’t” until you really try! And with Philippians 4:13 in mind, be careful before you say you “can’t!”
Others find themselves intimidated when asked to take a public part in services. I remember well the first time I was asked to serve communion to the audience. I was afraid I would trip or otherwise drop the trays! But soon, I advanced from that meager service to reading the scriptures before the lesson, to wording prayers, to making comments at the Lord’s table, to teaching and preaching. Challenging? Indeed! Yet the more I worked at conquering the challenge, the more confidence I gained. As one mentor told me, however, “If you ever stand before the Lord’s people to serve them in any capacity and have not a bit of nervousness about you, sit down! You’re not ready to serve them!” Mistakes will happen. We’ve seen many of them over the years. But God is forgiving provided we are repenting. Those mistakes teach us and help us to remember, “That’s not the right way. I’ve tried that before.” We don’t let the challenge beat us!
Life is difficult and the daily challenges that hinder us from living as God would have us conduct our lives are increasingly difficult. (2 Timothy 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.) Dare we allow these evils to defeat us and ruin our faithfulness? There is no need for such! To allow the challenge to beat us is to give up, and that just won’t do as a Christian. Listen to Paul’s inspired words: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.” (Philippians 3: 12 – 15)
I may need help from someone wiser than me to fix my computer projects, and I’m not ashamed to admit that fact! Likewise, some may need someone to help with their challenges in serving God. Don’t be ashamed to ask! We’ve been there, done that, got the t-shirt! Just don’t give up!! The Lord and His people are ready to help you defeat the challenges!