We Shall Not Give Up

One nation was being crushed by another and one city by another, because God was troubling them with every kind of distress. But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded – 2 Chronicles 15:6-7 NIV

I want to share a simple story about my daughter, Faith. From a toddler, Faith has been a fussy eater. She didn’t like her green food. I found it so difficult to put any kind of green vegetables on her plate back then and I am still battling the same issue now with her at 11 years old. There is one dish, we called it ‘healthy soup’ that I usually make from she was 1 year old until now. Every time I gave her this food, she was stressed to finish it. When she was very young, many times I ended up throwing most of the soup because she just didn’t want to eat it. But I didn’t give up and kept making this soup until now because I believe this soup is good for us. Even until very recently, she would choose some part of the vegetables that she can eat, and the rest she will leave in the bowl. She doesn’t like goji berry in the soup and for many years she refused to take this goji berry. But I kept making this soup at least once a month or even sometimes twice a month.

This week I made it again, and as usual, I gave her one bowl of soup. Normally she would be struggling to finish the bowl and she has to complain while eating it. Surprisingly, this time she was quiet and finished the bowl until nothing was left. She just told me, I finished it, mommy.

When I saw her empty bowl, I then realised that if we as humans get trained to do something over and over again for many years even though we hate it doing it in the beginning, eventually we will get used to it and it becomes easier as time goes by. But the problem is, many times we give up way too early. We only like to do something we enjoy or is easy to be done. If things get harder or more difficult, we are very tempted to stop doing it.

When God wants us to do something, usually ‘that something’ is not easy to do, or not fun to do. It will bring pressure, stress, or even anxiety to us. We face a dilemma between wanting to please God but didn’t really like the ‘task’. The Task itself normally will take up a long time to do. So not only we don’t really enjoy it, but we also need the endurance to do it for a bit of amount time.

When it comes to me, I normally will start doing what God wants me to do. I do not want to delay as soon as I hear from Him. However, my problem is I cannot promise myself that I can do it in the longer run. My endurance is a bit low especially when I start facing some challenges along the way or when things get difficult. I lost my motivation in the long run easily because I become tired and weary.

The word of God above reminded me that I shall not give up on doing the will of God in my life. He wants to build my character, my endurance, and He wants to see the fruit of the Holy Spirit inside me when I finally accomplished His task. I may not see the result right away, but if I refuse to give up, I will see a different me someday.

Have you experienced what I have experienced? Let us be reminded that God is a rewarding God. He gives us tasks because He wants to see growth in us and increase our capacity. After we reach all that, He will reward us according to His riches and glory, amen.

Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you are encouraged.