Last night I spoke to some college kids about overcoming adversity. I related how I overcame extreme adversity in my life and through my tremendous faith in God was able to miraculously be saved. I told them that I truly believe that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
I kind of feel like a hypocrite for trying to bolster their spirits and tell them to keep on keeping on, because I’m so bummed out about our upcoming election. The media seems to have given the election to Obama and are ready to crown him Lord and King before we even have the opportunity to cast our votes. It’s gotten so bad I’ve quit watching the news entirely, (even Fox).
I shudder to think what Obama will do in a second term and his antichrist socialistic views have me searching the globe looking for another home. I cannot find anything that I deem any better, and now I’m wondering if God is getting ready to shut things down, Rapture His children, and let those who are left behind get on with their destruction of the world and themselves.
Yikes! Is this the Christian attitude that I should be expressing?
I think not. Through the years I’ve read the following poem many times. It has helped me when I was grief-stricken; when I thought my business was going under, when I was blue about relationships. I read it this morning and it seemed to help a little.
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out–
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit–
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.
– Author unknown
The Bible is adamant that we should carry on the fight right up until the day God calls us home. I talked to the man who heads up the Christian ministry for the University that I visited last night and he told me that a half dozen or so students gave their hearts to Christ and were saved through that ministry last year. He seemed a little discouraged and I’m sure would have loved to have seen a thousand times that many; however think about Noah preaching for 120 years without a single convert, right up until the moment God ordered him to go into the ark and shut the door. His job was to plant seeds and leave the harvest to the Lord; never doubting for a moment that His will is being done just as He has ordained since the beginning of time.
We need to take a page out of Noah’s book… I’m drawn to a phrase made popular by General “Vinegar” Joe Stillwell: Illegitimi non carborundum. While hardly appropriate for a daily devotional, (no letters please – I know – I know!), I’m sorry folks, but that’s the defiant kind of mood I’m in this morning…We should not let them grind us down, and we should rest if we must, but keep on fighting right up until that moment we either shut our eyes for the last time, or in a twinkling of an eye we join Jesus Christ in the sky.
Romans 12:21
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.