Don't Give Up and Give In

James 1: 12 Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.

I once heard that it isn't important what happens to us but what happens in us when things happen to us.

For years I reacted to the circumstances that life brought my way which almost always placed me in an even more challenging position. I was either running away from relationships or failing in them.

When I became a Christian in 1982 after 32 years of running and failing I began to place trust in God to move me forward in life. I slowly began to grow up in the faith of Jesus. I spent 17 years growing but never getting beyond my past failures. In 1999 at the age of 49 I began to attend the Vineyard Church in Overland Park, Kansas. I discovered a relationship with my savior and a deeper involvement with the Holy Spirit. Over the past 10 years I have received healing for all of my wounds and failures.

Today's sermon by Mark Warner based on James 1: 12-16 brought it home for me. I no longer always give up and give in. I encourage you to visit the Vineyard Church sermon page and listen to this sermon.

I believe Nick Vujicic is a great example of what it is like to be a possessor of the faith and not a professor of the faith.

The words of Winston Churchill are a perfect way to end this post.

"Never Give In"
"This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

—HarrowSchool, 29 October 1941. It is commonly believed that Churchill stood up, gave the three-word speech, "Never give in!," and sat down. This is incorrect, as is the suggestion, variously reported, that the speech occurred at Oxfordor Cambridge. It was on his first visit to his old school, Harrow, where he would continue to return for the annual "Songs," making his last appearance in 1961.