Don't Throw In The Towel

Let’s pray.

Father,

Open my eyes so I can see Your truth.

Open my ears so I can hear Your voice.

Open my mind so I can understand Your Word.

And open my heart so I may receive all that You want me to receive.

AMEN

Have you ever felt like throwing in the towel? Do you know what it means to throw in the towel? It means to quit or to give up.

Have you ever felt like your situation was so hopeless that the only thing you could possibly do was quit and never look back?

Lately, I have been hearing how the enemy has been picking on people in our church. When the enemy attacks you or your family or some aspect of your life, it might be easy to give up and let him have the victory but that is not what we are supposed to do.

Most counselors will agree that the one thing that causes people to want to give up is a loss of hope.

Sadly, people every day and from every walk of life go through this. They get to a point in their lives when they feel like they have lost all hope.

If there was ever anyone in the Bible who had a good reason to lose hope it would have been Job.

Job lost everything. Satan took it all from him.

He lost all his children, all his servants, all his animals, all his crops, and all his possessions.

If that was not enough, he was then afflicted with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

Who was responsible for all of his losses and is painful affliction? Satan.

Job was an outstanding man of God and Satan did not like it.

So if anyone knew what it was like to feel despair, Job did. He was so down that he even thought his life would be better if he was dead.

Job had lost hope and he was ready to give up.

Look at Job 6:8-13.

8 “Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant what I hope for, 9 that God would be willing to crush me,

to let loose his hand and cut off my life!

10 Then I would still have this consolation— my joy in unrelenting pain— that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.

11 “What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient?

12 Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze?

13 Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me? Job 6:8-13

And look at Job 7:5-10.

5 My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering. 6 “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,

and they come to an end without hope.

7 Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again. 8 The eye that now sees me will see me no longer; you will look for me, but I will be no more.

9 As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so one who goes down to the grave does not return. 10 He will never come to his house again; his place will know him no more. Job 7:5-10

Job’s story and how he felt and how he reacted relates to us today because the temptation to throw in the towel and give up and lose hope and be in despair is universal and it is timeless.

You can see it over and over again.

Every day people go through the toughest of situations and every day people have to decide if they are going to throw in the towel and give up or if they are going to stand up and take the victory.

Married couples giving up on their spouse. Parents giving up on their children. Employees giving up on the job.

The common denominator in any situation when a person is ready to completely throw in the towel is that they have lost hope. They feel as if the situation is never going to get any better.

Hopelessness always breeds the temptation to give up and quit.

In the most extreme cases of hopelessness people succumb to suicide, hurting others, murder, divorce, or running away.

But in most cases hopelessness takes on the form of what psychologists call “quiet depression.”

Quiet depression happens when people go through the motions of life but in reality have given up and have become emotionally detached. Basically it is when a person stops caring about things even though they continue on.

There is a temptation to throw in the towel when the enemy attacks and even if you don’t throw in the towel, the quiet depression can creep into your life and cause damage to you personally and to those around you.