Altar Call – Opelika-Auburn News
Walter Albritton
September 14, 2014
What to do when you feel like giving up
Life
is hard. There are times when evil wins. We do the right thing but wrong
prevails. Those who lie and cheat have the upper hand. We see a tiny light in
the tunnel of our darkness but it turns out to be a train that runs over us.
In
such times we are tempted to throw up our hands and quit. Why keep trying to do
the right thing if we lose? Doubt takes over and we wonder if the way of love
really is the winning way. When our faith is tested by the difficulties of
life, it helps to remember that God was not surprised. Nothing surprises God.
He knows what is coming. Reading the Bible reinforces this truth. God uses the Bible
to strengthen my faith.
One way he does that is
by inspiring me when I read about people like the prophet Daniel. Reading the
story of Daniel reminds me that God will help me if I turn to him. I don’t
understand everything I read in the Book of Daniel but I still find great
lessons in this small book. Take, for example, that story about the king’s
dream. The king’s demand of Daniel and the wise men was impossible. He ordered
them to tell him what he had dreamed and what his dream meant. The wise men
gave up. It was impossible to know what the king had dreamed.
Daniel,
however, turned to the Lord in prayer. He did not turn to his own cleverness;
he turned to God. God answered Daniel’s prayer so Daniel could tell the king
both his dream and its meaning. The challenge for us is to believe that God will
help us like he helped Daniel. When there seems to be no human solution,
we can by faith turn to God. The world says, “Give up.” Faith says, “Turn to God.”
Daniel believed what Jesus would teach us years later – “Nothing is
impossible with God!” We can learn to ask God, and trust God, even when our
situation seems hopeless. No matter what the problem, God is able to help us.
Our
friends in Zambia, Alfred and Muumbe Kalembo, had a problem. Their
neighbors begged them to teach their small children to read and write. The only
space available was a small room that served as Alfred’s study.
“If
God wants us to have a school, he is able to make it happen,” the Kalembos
said. So they decided to turn the little room into a school, naming the school
the “God Is Able School for Children.” Soon Alfred’s study became a classroom
where Muumbe would teach ten children. Realizing they could enroll a hundred more
children if they had the facilities, Alfred and Muumbe believed what Daniel
believed – God is able! Today they are operating three schools and building a
fourth!
My
friend John has been successful in business more than once. In fact, three
times he lost everything and had to start over from scratch. But he refused to
give up. While he lost everything financially, he did not lose his faith. He
continued to believe that God was able to help him succeed – and he has! A
sign in a churchyard expresses what John believes: “When you have nothing but
God, you have everything you need.”
Many
people have everything but God and they are miserable. What they fail to see is
that what they cannot see is what really matters. Things have no eternal value.
The Bible teaches us that what is visible has no lasting meaning; only the
invisible lasts forever!
A
man in Alabama become so successful that he was considered the state’s
most generous philanthropist. He had homes in several states. He had his own
private jet. Then his world collapsed. He was fired as CEO of the very
company he had built. His success was achieved, his accusers say, through fraud
and deception. His “kingdom” of wealth and extravagance crumbled, like a sand
castle.
Daniel
was not impressed with earthly kingdoms. They have no future. God, however, according
to Daniel, is building a kingdom “that shall never be destroyed.”
We
may lose “the greatest job in the world.” We may lose our dream home. Our
worldly treasures may vanish into thin air. But what we have invested in
the Kingdom of God we cannot lose. What we have given away, in
the service of Jesus, will be ours forever.
When
the world’s kingdoms are tottering and falling all around us, we can rejoice
that we belong to an eternal Kingdom, the Kingdom that will remain when
everything else has been destroyed.
Think
about Daniel. We do not know if he wore expensive clothes, if he lived in a
fine home or if he drove an expensive camel. We do not know if he was a member
of a Country Club or if he was privileged to dine in “The Club” of his
city. What we do know about Daniel is that he believed God was able to
meet his needs and that God’s kingdom could never be destroyed.
Should
it not be our fervent prayer that we may live with such faith in these days? God
is able! To believe that, and to live by it, could be the key to great living
until our journey ends. + + +