Don’t give up!

May 5, 2006

By Larry Ambrose

What if Moses had given up after Pharaoh hardened his heart after the third plague ... or the sixth, or the ninth? What if Paul had given up after one of the times he was stoned, thrown in prison, shipwrecked or otherwise mistreated by the religious leaders and society of his day? What if the two blind men in Matthew 20:29-34 had given up after the crowd tried to hush them?

Verse 31 in that last example says, “They got all the louder” (The Message). In other translations it states, “They called out all the more” or “They shouted even more loudly.” The point is, they persisted. They didn’t give up. After Jesus stopped and asked what they wanted from Him, and after He heard their reply (“We want to see!”) God’s Word says Jesus was deeply moved, and healed them.

What is it you need from the Master today? Whether it’s physical healing, comfort, blessing, strength, salvation for a loved one, spiritual renewal — or just to know that He’s Jehovah Shama, the God who is with you — whatever it is, don’t give up.

The enemy of your soul would love for you to look at your circumstances and decide a solution is impossible. Or tell you you’re too busy to waste time praying about it anymore. Or that you’re too exhausted from the struggle to keep knocking on heaven’s door if an answer doesn’t come immediately.

Satan would love to discourage you by having you feel you don’t have time to go to church on a given Sunday. Or, once there, that your need isn’t important enough for you to go forward for prayer. Or that no one cares about it anymore except you. Or that you need to listen to others who try to convince you God may be telling you no.

It would’ve been a shame if those blind men had let the crowd hush them up in their desire to get to the Master. It would’ve been a shame if the four friends who brought the lame man to Jesus, lowering him through a section of roof they’d dismantled, had not done so because the crowd left them no easy access to Him.

It would’ve been a shame if Moses or Paul had let their circumstances and trials deter them from following what God had called them to do. And it would be a shame if we miss out on God’s timing in our lives, and fail to seek Him in our time of need, because we were hushed up.

So don’t let the crowd, the world, your circumstances, or even those around you in church keep you from persistent, consistent and insistent pressing in to touch the hem of the Lord’s garment. That reminds me ... what if the woman with the issue of blood had given up?

Larry Ambrose serves as music pastor at Chandler (Ariz.) First Assembly of God.