Do not give up. When you fall, get back up!

Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts.     – Jeremiah 15:16

 

In boxing, when a fighter determines that he has had enough and is ready for the match to end, his surrender is indicated by throwing a towel into the ring. Maybe you have had days when you were tempted to just throw in the towel, to give up the fight. Many have quit, but others have not.

Consider Albert Einstein, the physicist who developed the theory of relativity who said, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

Or the words of Winston Churchill when he told the British Parliament in 1940, “We shall fight on the beaches; we shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.”

 

Jeremiah was a prophet who refused to give up. His reasoning was not because of his tenacity to finish a project or of the extremity of his courage. Rather, he put his confidence in the Lord to sustain him and deliver him and the people of Israel, though they would face famine, exile, sword, and death. In due time, God did indeed restore His people, turning their sadness into joy because, as He said, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you” (Jeremiah 31:3).

 

Do not give up. When you fall, get back up!

Keep relying on the love and faithfulness the Lord has toward you. Honor and magnify Him as the source of your strength, your resolve, your comfort, your peace, and your joy.

Embrace and absorb what God said in Jeremiah 29:11-13, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” So, as Paul writes in Galatians 6:9, “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.”