Day Thirty-Three
“Home Stretch”
Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.
Galatians 6:9
I am sure by now these past few weeks have been some of the most exciting and some of the most challenging you have ever been through. You have prayed until you might have nothing left to pray. You may have fought through distractions, attacks from the enemy, and discouragement after discouragement. You may feel emotionally and spiritually drained as you come into the home stretch for the last week of this challenge. You may be tempted to coast to finish line because you have already tasted the victory. I encourage you to keep praying with those who are still fighting and praying for spiritual breakthroughs.
Some of you in the last few days have lost heart. All around you, others have witnessed the powerful hand of God moving in their lives but you have been a bystander. Losing heart means growing weary and weak. You are physically, spiritually, and emotionally exhausted. You have lost all courage to keep up the fight of faith. If you find yourself in this place, I urge you to let today’s scripture fill your heart and your mind. Now is not the time to lose heart.
For more than four weeks you have been praying, trusting, obeying, and persevering. Why give up now? You are in the home stretch and the answers to your prayers may have been delayed but that does not mean that they are not coming. Now is the time to keep believing and to keep asking. Each prayer is like sowing seed and all our faith is the water that nourishes those seeds. God will bring about the harvest if we do not grow weary, give up and quit the challenge.
Please hear me - if you truly want to please God (Hebrews 11:6) we are going to be living by faith and fighting through delays to our answers for the rest of our lives. As I write this it is 9:25 p.m. I have been working on this book for the past six days as much as I could. I am tired, but God keeps calling me back to this task and keeps inspiring me with more things to write. Part of me wonders, what’s the use? There is a part of me that wonders if anyone will ever read this and another part of me that wonders if God is going to use it to meet with His people. All along there has been a sense of urgency.
My family was invited over to some friends’ house tonight to eat dinner. We had some fantastic burgers grilled over a charcoal fire. When we got back to our house I had a choice to make. Part of me was tired. As far as writing goes the day had been frustrating. I faced several distractions and instead of finishing the book as I had hoped, I was only able to write about two day’s worth of materials. My flesh was weary and my faith was waning. I wanted to stay home rather than travel to my office, sit down at my computer, and take up the task again. Yet, there is the calling deep in me to finish this assignment. By faith I have to believe that God wants to do something with this book. I have felt compelled to write. He is pulling me along, giving me strength to press on and stirring things in me.
Even though you are weary, even though you are battling unbelief, even though your eyes have deceived you, I am urging you not to lose heart in doing good through your praying. Do not quit, especially when you are so close to the finish line of this challenge. What if God comes through you for you on day thirty-seven, thirty-nine, or on day forty? How thrilled will you be to get up at the celebration service on the fortieth day to testify about what the Lord has done for you? How many people will be touched, encouraged, and inspired to keep trusting, knowing that you kept the faith until the very end and you saw God intervene?
Nobody inspires me to keep trusting God and not lose heart in my life like a small band of believers in Humboldt, Saskatchewan. This small handful of believers felt the Lord calling them to start a church in that little town of barely 6,000 residents in rural Canada. They have been meeting together for over three years, despite the fact that they have never had a pastor. They have prayed and prayed and begged God to send them a pastor, but no one has answered that call. They had a couple of college students serve there for two and a half months over the summer, but they have never had a permanent pastor. They have invited guest supply preachers for over three years, often with no musicians to accompany the singing. When I think about that group of believers meeting week after week despite frigid subzero temperatures, blustery winds, surrounded by hearts as spiritually cold to the gospel as the weather outside, I am inspired to keep going. They have every reason to quit and give up, but they don’t. They hang in there. They stay the course. They wearily approach the throne of grace over and over again. They keep fighting through the snow and the cold to set up chairs and drag down a crude little pulpit to sing to the Lord and hear a word from Him, though their ache for a pastor is strong.
This small group of believers is the epitome of Galatians 6:9. Oh, how they inspire me to believe more and trust God more in my own life, even if that means waiting a little while. Hear God calling out to us not to give up and that we will reap the answers to all the sowing we have done in prayer if - don’t miss this, if and only if - we do not quit and throw in the towel. Keep praying. Keep fighting. Keep believing, for harvest time is near.
Steps to Trust and Obey:
1. If you feel you are losing heart, what is calling you to feel that way?
2. What good is God calling you to keep doing and keep believing Him for?
3. Continue asking the Lord for the harvest. Obey His promptings.
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