We were sitting waiting for the Sunday service to begin. Nearby we could hear a conversation between parents of adult children. The couple had 3 adult children. All had been invited all of them to attend church with them and to spend the day. As the music began for the service, we could hear the disappointment in their voices when they said, “Might as well move over…they aren’t showing up.”
THAT’S NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN
Often, I think Satan takes opportunities like these to whisper into our hearts, “Might as well give up….that’s never going to happen.” I know I have heard that voice many times in a great variety of situations. I have wanted to give up & throw in the towel.
Then I remember the example of my friend who blamed God for everything. Her ongoing mantra was: “God doesn’t care for me. A sovereign God could never let me suffer the way I have suffered. What good is God?” We talked and talked. I prayed and persisted. Prayed and persisted. It was her choice regarding the subject matter for our conversations. Sometimes it seemed that our encounters were going somewhere but the next week they would go back to square one. I wondered, “God, is she ever going to understand that Your soul purpose is not to send lightening bolts her way?”
THIS WENT ON WEEK AFTER WEEK
The one thing I made sure of was that I didn’t argue with her. I gave her lots of time to talk. In Life Coaching you ask a lot of questions and that is what I did. This went on week after week. I would frequently send her a passage of Scripture and mention, “I thought of this while reflecting on what we talked about. Maybe you want to read it and think about it.” I didn’t demand she read it; I just asked her what she thought about it.
I also made sure that she knew I wasn’t going to argue with her. If she disagreed with something God said, then she would have to go to God Himself to lay her case. Gradually she began to have quite a different viewpoint of God. She came to understand that the God she had criminalized wasn’t actually the God of the Bible. She accepted that God incredibly loved her so much that He gave His own Son in her place to die, so that she could have life. No one had ever loved her that way.
DON’T SENT IN YOUR RESIGNATION LETTER YET
So, with that in mind, I tell all of you who want to give up and resign yourself to life’s disappointments – don’t give up even when you feel like throwing in the towel. There is one extra dear friend who will be in heaven because we kept talking. God used it, even when I couldn’t see light at the end of the tunnel. Don’t put your resignation letter yet on God’s desk.