"Do You Ever Feel Like Giving Up?"

"Therefore, since God in His mercy has given us this NEW way, we NEVER give up." 2 Corinthians 4:1 (NLT)

You may be at that place today where you feel like giving up on God or giving up on the Christian life. If you are not at that place today, have you ever had thoughts before like these: "When is God going to come through?";"Why hasn't He done something to deliver me from this situation or relationship?"; "How long am I going to suffer or be in this conflict?" If we are honest with ourselves, we can all admit to having thoughts like these at some point. We may have never overtly said "I am going to give up on God or give up on my Christian life",  but I wonder if  we don't subtly or covertly say this through our thoughts and actions.

There are times that we, especially in times of great pain and/or disillusionment, feel like giving up. However, what does God say in the passage above?: Since He "has given us this new way" we never give up. I don't know about you but the word NEVER jumps out of this verse at me. How can Paul be so adamant about "never" giving up?

To answer this question, we need to first look at what Paul means by the "new way." Is it possible that Paul is talking about Jesus being the "new way?" After all, Jesus Himself in John 14:6 says He is THE WAY. If this is what Paul is referring to, the next question is: "Do we understand what it means to live from "this new way?"  I suspect that many of you reading this do understand but for those of you who may not, here, in part, is what it means:

1.Living in total dependence on Christ as a branch depends on the vine.  (John 15:5)

2.Living from the fullness of God's life and power in us to be transformed into Christ-likeness. (1 John 5:12; Ephesians 3:19; Ephesians 1:19, 20; 2 Corinthians 3:18)

3.Experiencing freedom and victory, and being healed from past woundedness.  (Galatians 5:1; 1 Corinthians 15:57; Psalm 147:3)

4.Believing and living out of your true identity in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Now that we understand, at least in part, the new way, let's go back to our question: Why is Paul so adamant about "never" giving up?

One reason is, that if you give up on God or give up living from the new way where does that leave you? It leaves you going back to yourself as the source to live life.  It leaves you going back to using your finite intellect and ability to try and resolve your impossible problems or to try and produce a satisfying marriage or to try to  find joy and fulfillment outside of Christ.  If that is where you are today, how is that working for you?

Secondly, and more importantly, Paul is saying that if you walk long enough in dependence on Christ as the The (new) Way, you won't give up because you know that to go back to self as the source is not an option. You have experienced enough "death of self" that to go back to self is just more "death."

The truth is that we never can give up because there is NO other option than God. Because there is no other way but THE WAY. Because to go back to ourselves as the source will only result in more misery, more conflict and more of the same.

Therefore, my encouragement to you is that if today (or tomorrow) you feel like giving up on God, take another step of faith and continue living dependent on Christ as "the (new) way." Why? Because each step of faith will be used by the Spirit to further persuade you that God will do what He promises to do to transform your life and  that giving up on Him is really not an option.