Here’s God’s honest truth—you aren’t the only one who’s looked giving up straight in the face.
It doesn’t always feel that way, does it? There’s one feeling that frequently overwhelms me when I’m in the thick of trial: a sense of being alone. I’m the only one who’s ever faced a challenge like this. No one understands, I think.
When we feel like we are the only ones who have ever experienced this level of resistance, we need a faith system that will help us fight back. We need stories of men and women who encountered resistance with faithfulness—and honestly, even temporary faithlessness—if we’re to develop a persistent spirit.
And the Bible is filled with these stories. It feels like on every page, there’s someone on the brink of giving up. If we are going to persist through resistance, we have to fight the lie that we are the only one. We need to consider stories of faithful (or failing!) men and women so that we can root ourselves in the fact that what we’re experiencing is absolutely normal. And even though it might not feel like it, God is with us at every moment.
Resistance in Paradise
Resistance started in the Garden. Many have pictured Eden as a permanent vacation. I know I used to. But a closer read showed me I was mistaken. There was actually responsibility and work—minus the complicated commute and the normal office boredom. But here’s the beautiful part: work was meaningful and free from toil. God commissioned Adam and Eve to rule over creation, and he gave them authority to make decisions and carry them out when desired.
But I haven’t even mentioned the best part yet. God walked among them and spoke freely to them. Imagine that! The presence of God within reach at all times.
But even there where the grass was green, the temptation to give up was right there in their midst.
The pressure to give up is present in blessing too.
Life was good, but even there, the whispers of Satan embodying a serpent filled Adam and Eve’s ears—and hearts.
“This is nice, but wouldn’t it be even better if you ate that other fruit? Why does God want to keep that from you?”
“Maybe you know better than God?”
“Didn’t God give you all authority to make some life decisions on your own?”
They gave up and gave in. What exactly did Adam and Eve give up on? Belief and faith. Trust. God’s word and promises for Satan’s. The assignment given to them. Their responsibilities and work. Blessing. Each other—to name a few. Letting go can affect our legacy.
Giving up changed their lives and ours—forever.
Great Promises Can’t Be Problem-Solved
Abram received a promise from God that would form a whole nation and people group. The promise would come through a child he and his wife desperately longed for. God first spoke to them in Genesis 12 by assuring Abram he’d be a father one day. What’s the big deal, you ask?
Abram was seventy-five at the time.
He and God had a good laugh about the matter, and Abram continued on in life. But eventually he grew tired of waiting and gave up.
Rather than being encouraged to persevere for the promise, Abram grew bitter and tired of waiting on God. He wasn’t the only one. Sarai, his wife, was over the wait too. They took matters into their own hands. Their plan was for Abram to be unfaithful in his marriage with an employee of theirs. Eventually they got a child from this union (Ishmael), but it wasn’t the promised child.
The good news is that even though Abram and Sarai had given up on God, even though they didn’t persevere for the promise, God hadn’t given up on them. The promise was still theirs for the receiving. When Abram (now called Abraham) was one hundred years old, he finally held the child of promise. His very own son.
The persistence needed for this promise took twenty-five years!
Here’s what we need to learn: God isn’t a microwave. God isn’t an Instant Pot. God is like a Crock-Pot—slowly cooking the circumstances needed to eventually serve us the fulfillment of a promise. And his great promises require patient persistence.
When the Spiritual High Wears Off
God’s plan was for David to sit on the throne. The path towards the promise, however, would come through persistence. Once he had been anointed and made king of Israel, he went right back to working his day job for fifteen years. I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like to receive the promise of being king, only to barely persevere through the routine of everyday life.
What we learn from King David is that when it comes to persistence, we need to expect the natural to follow the supernatural.
He persevered and received his promise as king. If you’ve experienced God in a mighty way, only to be met with the humdrum tasks of today, don’t be discouraged. Treasure the time with God and press on in the mundane and average. Surely fulfillment is on the other side of your follow-through.
Delayed Fulfillment
If you track the life of Moses, all you see is persistent resistance. From birth Moses faced an uphill climb: he was born into a time in history where a pharaoh tried to eliminate a whole generation of Hebrew boys. Then he persevered through forty years of living away from home in the wilderness. Eventually he would help God rescue the nation of Israel from Egypt.
First he ran into issues with the pharaoh of Egypt. God told Moses to go and ask for the people to be released, but nothing changed. Pharaoh’s heart grew hard.
Eventually Pharaoh did free the people, but their newfound freedom only resulted in new resistance. There was the physical resistance. How would they cross an impossible body of water? Then once they passed through the water, they encountered provisional resistance—no food or water.
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again—but expecting different results. But I call that walking with God. Sometimes the calling requires you and me to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. That involves persistence. And Moses persisted.
God kept his promise after all, even if Moses didn’t experience it in his lifetime. Even though he could only see a sliver of the story, Moses persisted—and his persistence paid off. He set foot in the Promised Land with Jesus—when he and Elijah talked with the Savior on the Mount of Transfiguration (see Matthew 17:1-8). And he did so in glory.
Waiting Is the Only Way
Whether you’re in trial or tribulation, if you feel the urge to give up on God or on what he’s given you—you’re in good company. Don’t buy the lie that the enemy is selling, that you’re alone in your pain. It takes great courage to remain persistent in the midst of resistance.
You might feel alone, but you are not. A great crowd of witnesses has run the race before you and they are cheering you on (see Hebrews 11:1–12:1). The days might feel lackluster. But fulfilled promises are ahead. Your persistence will be paid in full—whether in this life or the next.
Adapted from Don’t Give Up Just Yet: Choosing Persistence in a World of Overwhelming Resistance by Nick Connolly. Copyright © 2024. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved.
Nick Connolly is the founding and lead pastor of Bright City Church, a ten-year-old faith community located in the heart of downtown Charleston, South Carolina. Not only is Nick passionate about church, he and his wife, Jess, have started multiple businesses and love how business can be used for the Kingdom. Nick and Jess live in Charleston with their four kids: Elias, Glory, Benja, and Cannon.