Why We Don't Quit -- and Why We Can

The reason why we do not give up.

The reason why we keep on trying to fix our lives is. .

We do not see a living Savior who is at work taking care of all things for us.

If like me you had believed that everything in this life depended on  you and your own actions, there is never a chance to stop and rest, to let Him take care of all things.

The reason why I often felt that He was far away, was that what I was believing, what I was thinking had taken precedence over what His Word had to say to me.

The dialogue that was going on in my head for the longest time stressed the idea that He was not taking care of everything, or anything.

I often heard from people close to me: "You have to live the Christian life."

Soren Kierkegaard was the most man-centered religionist I have ever read, and he would write:

"Live what you believe."

He died at the age of 42, still not recognizing that none of us can live, but rather we are called to believe, to believe on Him who has been from the beginning (1 John 2: 14-15)

If we do  not believe in a living Savior, we will be stuck trying to save ourselves.

As long as we keep thinking that there is something left for us to do, we will find ourselves left to frustration and difficulties in our lives.

The more that I think about this, the more that I realize how many of the "church people" in my life have been obsessed with striving, with writhing in their self-efforts.

Then came the really frustrating, offensive statement:

"I am so tired of these Christians. They don't live it!"

Live what? No one can live this life. No one:

"20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2: 20-21)

This is why believing on Him is so important. There is no other way to live but by faith, His faith in us!

The more that Pharisee types want to thump their chests and say "You have to live it!" the angrier I get.

No one can live it, because without Christ living in us, no one is alive!

Where do these individuals get the idea that we can create, that we can generate this life?

It is a gift, which receive through the gift of righteousness:

"For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." (Romans 5: 17)

This is not a game. This is not a joke.

It is killing people, to put all this pressure on them to create life, when we have nothing but death in our members.

I got angry, took exception to these points.

He started to shut me down: "Now. Now! I don't want to argue about it!"

At this point, there is no letting it go. If men and women in the Body of Christ do not want to believe the truth, we have to hold them accountable for it.

For all the pain and headaches I have experienced in my life, I realize today why I was feeling the way that I felt.

I was convinced that I had to create, that I had to generate this life on my own.

No one can. I was constantly terrified about tomorrow. How was I going to get through the day?

Today, I have the witness of the Cross, and everything which it represents. The event, the death, the reality, not some idea, not a fantasy, speaks today as much as it did years ago.

Why don't we quit? Because we do not believe that the work is done. We do not see or understand the fullness of the grace of God at work in our lives.

Still we wake up convinced that the world would not turn, the sun would not rise without us.

Give me a break! The world is still turning, and the earth still hangs on nothing. Most importantly, though, He is holding you and me with both hands.

Why we can (and must) quit: no flesh will glory in God's presence.

No flesh, then there's glory, because of Him who lives in us.

I pushed back, my friend of a friend got angry. I then declared that there are a lot of people dying, frustrated in their walk. He got even more upset, asked me if I wanted him to leave. I shrugged my shoulders, did not really care, and he stormed off.

I actually felt pretty good about punching back.

There is no life in ourselves.

Jesus, He is our life. He is alive, and He is living in us, working in us, too.

We don't quit because we do not see Him alive in us. We can quit when we understand that He is alive and living in us. Even the most traditional of church services pay lip service to that reality: through Him, with Him, in Him!

Yet still they had nothing to show for everything that they were doing.

No wonder I have found myself pushing away a lot of church people in recent days.

There is so much emphasis on "What are you doing for Jesus?"

When are we going to take Jesus at His own word?

"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." (John 15: 5)

Still we don't quit. We want to be the branches through our efforts. Yet there would not even be a branch, you or me, without the Vine, and that Vine is Jesus.

Cool!

I remember one church guy, a friend of a friend. He and I were often missing each other when trying to get together.

Finally, we sat down for breakfast again.

He was going off about a shared friend of ours, how he was suffering in his body, his health declining.

Right away, he was thumping his chest, talking about what a great job he had done staying away from smoking and drinking.

"I don't smoke, I don't chew, and I don't run with girls who do!"

This self-righteousness has no bearing on life or right living.

We are not saved by our efforts, and we do not remain sanctified through the same, either.

Right away, I pressed him: "Why didn't you help him? Why didn't you talk to him about the dangers of drinking?"

The funny thing about the drinking remark: my friend was not a heavy drinker at all. Even if someone has a drinking problem, the problem really isn't the drinking.

An empty life, full of strife and vanity -- that will lead anyone to drink. Welcome Ecclesiastes, who was frustrated with life, seeing how full of grasping of the wind it can become.