The world of today is one of turmoil. One may sometimes feel as though he awakens each morning to a life filled with too many responsibilities and too little time; more jolts than joys; too many troubles and too few triumphs; and all with frayed nerves and frazzled emotions for his efforts. He might even feel like taking Marshall Dillon up on his oft-spoken theatrical directive to, “Get out of Dodge,” and go somewhere, anywhere, away from the pressures of life. May I say for the record, there is no such place in this world. Though one may sometimes feel otherwise, it’s never a good idea to give up and quit. This is especially true of one’s relationship with God.
Should you be one of those folks who can’t relate to what I’ve described above, I salute you. Perhaps you’re an individual who’s learned to face life and its difficulties with a positive outlook, and a consistent faith toward God. We would all do well to live by the truth of God’s Word, which says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:13). The Apostle Paul taught that the saints were to be “…steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58). God’s people need to develop and maintain the attitude and practice of spiritual sticktuitiveness. Let me illustrate my point with the following true story:
In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Leo Jaroff in Time, the satellite’s primary mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons, and beam data to Earth about Jupiter’s magnetic field, radiation belts, and atmosphere. Scientist regarded this as a bold plan, for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target.
But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more. Swinging past the giant planet in November 1973, Jupiter’s immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion miles. By 1997, twenty-five years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun. And despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to scientists on Earth. “Perhaps most remarkable,” writes Jaroff, “those signals emanate from an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light, and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth.”
The Little Satellite That Could was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going and going. By simple longevity, its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished more than anyone thought possible.
So it is when we offer ourselves to serve the Lord. God can work even through someone with 8-watt abilities. God cannot work, however, through someone who quits.1
Dear child of God, there is no doubt that life is fraught with difficulties and hardships, and sometimes we feel wounded and weary. But God is still on the throne, and His Word says, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:” (1 Cor. 9:8). CHRISTIAN, DON’T QUIT!
1Craig Brian Larson, Pastoral Grit: The Strength to Stand and to Stay, Bethany.
