It's Too Late To Give Up

It’s too Late to Give Up

Ecclesiastes 9:11

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. Thorns in our flesh help keep us stable, keeps us humble

If we never have afflictions, then God will never have the opportunity to deliver us

1Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.

2Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4though I myself have reasons for such confidence.

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Pressing on Toward the Goal

12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

17Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

If we look up a couple verses, we find what Paul’s desire was; and his main focus and concerns were on Christ and Heaven. The apostle Paul had his heart upon Christ. This should be every Christian’s desire in their heart, to know Christ, not only to know Christ, but to Win Christ. Everything that we do should be with the intent to win Christ or in other words, to please Him. We as Christians don’t have a leg to stand on, if we don’t have righteousness, but not own, not self righteousness, not getting caught up in ourselves, not feeling like it ain’t right unless our hands are in it or a part of it, but that righteousness is only through the faith of Christ.

You can’t please Christ if you don’t know His ways. We must get to know Him through our faith and the word of God. In verse 10, it reads I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death-- knowing Him is believing in Him—we are made conformable to his death when we die to sin—and just as Christ died to sin, when we are crucified with Christ, the world is crucified to us. In other words, we have to change the desires, from fleshly desires to spiritual…the bible declares in Psalm 37:4