“For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica…”
If my name had been mentioned in the Bible, I would not have wanted it to be because I was a quitter. This is the legacy that Demas has in biblical history. I’m sure that he has been used as a bad example in many sermons over the past two thousand years. At the time 2 Timothy was written, Paul was old, sick and about to be killed. Some stuck with him, but Demas quit to join the secular world. (Perhaps he got what he considered a “better deal.”) Demas personified quitters today. We are in a great spiritual battle, and many people are joining Demas to join the secular world. Using Demas as a background, I want us to look at quitting as it relates to us. There are times when we should quit. We should quit when we realize that we are wrong, or that we are headed in the wrong direction in our lives. The Prodigal Son comes to mind. He went in the wrong direction and decided to quit being stupid and get back to his father. Saul of Tarsus, who became the apostle Paul, is another example. Paul quit what he was doing because Jesus turned his life around. We should also quit when we realize that our actions do not match our convictions. We should quit when what we are doing, or saying, is needlessly hurting other people. There are many reasons why we should quit bad behavior. This does not make us quitters, but it makes us wise people. There are times when we think we have ample reason to quit. We might think that we have ample reason to quit when we feel that we are being mistreated, and we feel like giving in to our feelings and quitting. If what we are doing is God’s will, we should just put our feelings aside and “soldier on.” We might feel like quitting if we think that our efforts are unappreciated. This might seem like a good reason to quit, but if being unappreciated was a good reason to quit, Paul would have quit after they tried to kill him in Lystra. (Acts 14:19) Elijah comes to mind here. He had a great victory on Mt. Carmel, then Jezebel threatened him and he headed to the Juniper tree, where he tried to quit, but he didn’t. (Read about it in 1 Kings 18-19.) Sometimes we feel like quitting because we think that we are too tired to go on. If this was a good reason to quit, a lot of people would be out of work. There are times when we feel like quitting because people have disappointed us, or let us down, in some way. I think of Moses and the Israelites. If Moses had quit because of people disappointing him, he would not have made it through the Red Sea. There are great people of God who did not quit who serve as good examples for us. I have already mentioned Paul and Moses. These two people always come to mind when I think of people who stuck with what God wanted them to do in spite of all of the hardships that they faced. Let’s take another look at Moses. He had led the Israelites right up to the door of Canaan at Kadesh Barnea. He sent twelve men to spy out the land and come back with a report. After their foray into Canaan, ten of the men were afraid of the big people, the Anakites, who made them feel like grasshoppers. Only Joshua and Caleb wanted to go on and take the land. The Israelites, overcome by fear, refused to go into Canaan. (Why did they think they left Egypt?) God made them wait forty years until all of that generation died. If Moses had been a quitter, he would have quit at Kadesh Barnea. But he stayed with them forty more years, and then died before he got into the Promised Land. But he did not quit doing what God called him to do. Don’t be like Demas. If what you are doing is God’s will for you, keep at it until He releases you. If where you are attending church is where you are supposed to be and you get disappointed, stay with it until God tells you to go somewhere else. In other words, don’t be a quitter. Bro. Joe
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|