Determine from the beginning that you will not quit!

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Current Precious Prodigal Post = http://ritamoritz.com/blog

Determine from the beginning that you will not quit! 

#dontgiveup, #trustGodinthevalley

Like what you see?

Please "Like" & "Share" with your online friends.

Read more by going to: http://bit.ly/2r9KW8v

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Determine from the beginning that you will not quit! #dontgiveup #trustGodinthevalley

1 Corinthians 16:13 “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.”

Before we begin to look at recovery together, it’s important to lay the foundation we’re going to build on. That foundation for me is that I will not quit, and it’s written in stone. Several years ago, I did exactly that…quit, I mean. And it took me places I don’t ever want to go again. I wrote about that journey in the chapter “Rita Came Home” in my book, So You Love a Prodigal. Believe me when I tell you quitting will also take you places you’ll wish you hadn’t gone.

It was a long way back from that “far country,” and I determined, by the grace of God, I would never give up or quit on God again regardless of what happened in my life. That resolve was put to the ultimate test on December 19, 2016, when I received a phone call telling me my oldest son Buddy had suffered a heart attack and was in ICU on life support. 

I only thought I knew what it meant to pray fervently before that day. However, it took on a new meaning as I begged God for my son’s life in a way I had never prayed for anything before. And when I knew God’s answer was, “No,” and my son was going to die, I began to pray with the same fervency that God would only help me to be faithful. I had quit once before and walked away from the Lord, and my greatest fear was I might walk away again. In that moment, like Job, I determined in my heart that, “though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.” (Job 13:15)

It doesn’t mean my heart wasn’t broken. It was, and it still is. Losing a child isn’t something you “get over.” I’m learning the best I can do is try to adjust to a world that is forever changed. I don’t understand it…how could I? However, faced with the choice of trusting my God in the dark or raging against my fate, I will choose to trust Him. 

Recovery means finding our way back to a “normal” state. And that includes both physically and mentally. Some synonyms include “reclaim,” “win back,” and “compensate.” Many of those words suggest action, and we’ll be looking at some actions we can take on our own road to recovery. But it has to start with the right foundation.

You see, the bottom line is that God is either everything or He is nothing…there’s no in between. If He’s nothing, we might as well quit because there’s no hope for us. But if He’s everything, then we can trust Him even when we don’t like the answer, and everything within us is screaming, “This can’t possibly be God’s will.” Even then…maybe especially then, we need to have a heart that trusts Him enough to determine that we will not quit.

Challenge for Today: What might happen if we, just for today, began our recovery on the firm foundation of refusing to quit?