Faithful Companions - Part 1

DAILY BYTE

Do you ever feel like you just want to give up?

Do you ever feel that the circumstances of your life are such that you wish you could just pack it in and escape from it all, even for just a while?

Maybe it’s an exhausting relationship that continues to suck the life out of you.
Maybe it’s your work that is placing an unbearable burden of stress and strain upon you.
Maybe it’s a financial crisis that feels like a noose around your neck.
Maybe it’s the constant, never-ending demands of raising children.
Maybe it’s been a recent experience of crime or corruption that has been one experience too many for you.
Maybe it’s the endless treatment of a medical condition that just won’t improve.
Maybe it’s the pain of a deep grief or a bitter memory that continues to break open at unexpected times and wound you afresh.
Maybe it’s the disappointment of doors constantly closing on a dream that you’ve cherished for a long, long time.
Maybe it’s the aching loneliness of feeling that nobody understands you and nobody cares.

Do you ever feel like you just want to give up?

Of course, wanting to give up is something that we wouldn’t normally acknowledge.

We live in a world that places a high premium on being upbeat and positive. And there is a great gift in that. There are many inspiring stories of people who have overcome overwhelming odds through their tenacity of spirit, their dogged determination and their stubborn refusal to give up.

Here’s a fun poem that illustrates this very point:

Two frogs fell into a bowl of cream, (or so the story’s told).
The bowl’s sides were smooth and steep, the cream was deep and cold.

"Oh, what's the use?" said Number One, "It's fate - no help's around."
"Good-bye, my friend. Good-bye, cruel world." And just like that, he drowned.

But Number Two, of sterner stuff, dog-paddled in surprise,
And licked his creamy lips and face, and blinked his creamy eyes,

"I'll swim,” he said, “while I have breath, until my strength is spent
That when I come to meet my end at least I’ll die content.”

So round and round he kicked and swam, not once did he stop to mutter,
And then hopped out the bowl of cream, which now was a bowl of butter

The moral of the story – never give up! And it’s a great moral that we can all applaud. Except for one thing. When we’re in that place where we’re ready to pack it in, being told not to give up is simply not enough. We need something more to strengthen, encourage and inspire us to carry on.

Thankfully, God has given us something more than just good advice. In the dark and desperate experiences of our lives God comes to us, to help us in our need, and to strengthen us with a strength beyond our own that we might persevere to the end.

In our devotions this week we will explore some of the ways in which God comes to us, particularly through the lives of others that can be a source of encouragement and inspiration for us all. We will also be reading sections out of that great passage in scripture which talks about the heroes of the faith – Hebrews 11, as we consider the faithful companions who join us on the road.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Loving Lord God, sometimes the pressures and demands of life just get too much, and I’m not sure how I’m going to cope. Thank you that in times like these I am not alone, but you come to help me and sustain me. Thank too for the stories of your faithful servants who have hold fast to the faith, even in the midst of struggles of their lives. This week, may I be strengthened and encouraged by their example. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Hebrews 11:8-10

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.