We’re Not Called to Just “Hang in There”

Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

Have you ever asked someone how they were doing and they responded, Oh I’m hanging in there. I promise you that God’s plan for your life is not just hanging in there! In the Lord you are either pressing on and going forward or you are actually going backwards. Hanging in there is going backwards. It’s regressing! Let me show you a biblical picture of men that thought they were hanging in there or maintaining.

1 Sam 17:4, 8-11, 16 “A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall. Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.”

Now these were men who were just hanging in there. They hadn’t lost the battle. They were both holding their sides, right? No the truth is, that in their maintaining, they were actually losing ground. Why, because they were God’s men. They were God’s people and He was their God. They were supposed to be able to defeat the enemy yet, here they were, day after day just trying not to lose their position. That’s a place of going backwards. They were losing ground in their heart and faith. Every day they began to wonder if God was really with them. That wondering is doubt—the enemy of faith! Their confidence was a boat with a leak in it. When you begin to lose confidence in who you are in Christ, and His presence and desire to help you, then you are not maintaining, you are going backwards.

They were going backwards until something changed. David showed up. David knew His God. David knew who he was in God.

David wanted to know what was going on. When he heard about it, he was indignant. This young shepherd boy’s heart cried out, ”What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Sam 17:26 NIV)

David was not a maintainer. Why should he be? God was and had been with Him. He didn’t know how God was going to do it but he knew His God. He knew God required faith so he began to press in faith toward a victory. Everyone else cowered with fear while thinking they were maintaining. David advanced toward the enemy and cried these famous words. “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” 1 Sam 17:45-47

David pressed toward God’s promise and expected victory. He was strong in His faith in the Lord.

So, are you called to cower or maintain or are you called to press and win? Philippians 3:14 NKJV says, “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

God is with you. God is for you. God will help you do those things that you know are His will and purpose! Rom 8:31-32 says, “… If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave Him up for us all–how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” And finally, this verses from II Corinthians 8:10-11 MSG help us regroup and move forward! It says, “So here’s what I think: The best thing you can do right now is to finish what you started last year and not let those good intentions grow stale. Your heart’s been in the right place all along. You’ve got what it takes to finish it up, so go to it. Once the commitment is clear, you do what you can, not what you can’t. In other words, forget maintaining! Go after real progress in your life. God is with you! What you can’t do in yourself, God gives you the grace to persevere in Him! And He will be your victory!

Romans 8:37 (NKJV) “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

In His love,
Pastor Tim Burt

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