What is the quitting point for you? if you're a runner and you're on the twentieth lap and your legs feel like rubber, you can't take another step -- you're at a physical quitting point. Maybe you're at the job, things are overwhelming you. You are dizzy from all the work and you're at a vocational quitting point. Maybe you're in an argument with your wife or your husband for the ninth time over the same issue. One of you says the magic words that sends the other one bolting from the room -- you're at a marital quitting point. Maybe you're up to 12:00 a.m.. Your teenager was supposed to be home at 10:30 and when they walk in the door you ask them where they've been for the last hour and a half and they announce to you that it's none of your business. You're at a parental hitting/quitting point.
Maybe you have had a great relationship, a great week with God this week. You feel He's in control of your life. Then these inevitables hit us. The strings that dangle from our instruments, the strings that dangle from our lives. We feel like God has abandoned us, He's not near us. We are at a spiritual quitting point.
[callout]It's much easier to quit something than continue. It's easier to walk out of a room than to stay and resolve a conflict. It's easier to skip church and enjoy a nice day at the beach or the mountains. It's easier to play than to practice. It's easier to watch tv after a long day of work than to spend some time with your family, your kids. It's easier to do what we want rather than what God wants.
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The Bible says in Philippians 3:13 "I am still not all I should be, but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing. Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us."
Adversity helps promote endurance. When problems and difficulties come into our life, through enduring them, we can take a step further into our maturity walk.
John Scott knows a little bit about what it's like to not know what's going on with his life. He found himself in a 480 foot mine elevator in England. On his way up the elevator stopped for a brief moment. What he didn't know was the engineers were going to begin to test the emergency braking system of the elevator. How do they do that? They raise the elevator all the way to the top and then they send it into a free fall, 480 foot free fall. Right before it hits the ground they would slam on the brakes, then all the way back up again. Then they would send it into another virtual free fall all the way to the bottom and slam on the brakes. Can you imagine what was going through his mind? For two hours!
Those are the inevitables in our life. There are things that come to us and you know what they are in your life. You're coming up and all of a sudden the bottom drops out of your life. You're sent into a free fall. That's how God gets our attention. But I would tell you He always has His hand on the brake. He will never let you go 481 feet. He's got His hand on the brake. And although we can't see it sometimes, He is there applying the brake at the right time. He is testing the braking system of your life.
If I had to chose a way to do it, I would not do it that way. I would not put someone through pressure to get something out that was right, true, honorable. But that is the way God has chosen to deal with us at times. Don't Give Up!
