If you don’t want to give up, you’re probably not doing anything worth doing.

If you don’t want to give up, you’re probably not doing anything hard.

If you don’t want to give up, you’re probably not doing anything that is helping form you into the man or woman God created you to be.

If you don’t want to give up, you’re probably not growing big in Christ – big in His humility, holiness, endurance and love.

What God created you for will be hard. It will cause you to “grow weary”.

What Jesus calls you to – “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” – will be hard. It will lead you to “grow weary”.

So…

“(L)et us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9) There’s nothing easy about doing good. In fact, Paul is saying that if you are “doing good,” if you are doing the right things, you will “grow weary”.

If you are doing what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy – it will be hard and you will grow weary.

The measure, then, of our growth, of our faith, of our obedience, of our love is that “we do not give up.” We do not give up. We do not give up. We do not give up.

Because…

Paul says “in due season we will reap.” This means at the right time— a time known and determined by God. We don’t give up because there isn’t a harvest. We give up because we don’t know what time it is. Is it still a season of sowing or is it finally a season of harvest?

In all our endeavors and efforts, we must remember that Jesus came “when the fullness of time had come“ (Galatians 4:4). And Jesus died “at the right time” (Romans 5:6). So if Jesus came and died at the right time, then He also rose at the right time.

The right time will come. Harvest and resurrection will come, but only after sowing and death. Only after weariness and endurance.

Elim Grace, if we confess that we are new creations in Christ, we have an assurance that all things work together for our good. Yet we also have a responsibility to not give up – to be faithful.

In his pursuit of and obedience to Christ, Paul hid nothing of his weariness in doing good. “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9)

Sometimes we think being faithful to Jesus and His calling is a determination of heart. And partly it is. But it is also the flow of a healthy soul. Weariness can be a sign of a healthy heart doing the right things. Yet the true test of health is “we do not give up”. How? The flow of our heart comes from “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Corinthians 13:14).