Don't Give Up

Everybody Stumbles Sometimes

Photo by Khiet Tam on Unsplash

On the Christian journey, everybody stumbles sometimes. Whether it’s a big fall or a temporary trip, I want to encourage you not to give up.

That’s true for even the giants of faith in the Bible. Hebrews 11 lists a lot of those people. That chapter is the “A-List” of believers. You know their names. Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and others. They were human and imperfect, but honestly, they seem beyond me in the actions of faith. Would I build an ark? Would I attempt to follow the instruction to sacrifice my son? Would I waltz into the courtroom of the most powerful leader in the world and ask him to release his workforce? I would like to affirm that kind of boldness in my spirit, but I know better.

Most Christians will live their lives without being in the big-time of faith heroes. At least, their faith will not be headline material. That’s ok. Because when I read through Hebrews 11 and get to verse 32, I saw something I had missed before.

And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I recount Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah… - Hebrews 11:32a

The writer of Hebrews does something quite intentional here. The references in this part of the verse come from the book of Judges. Judges isn’t the high point of Israel’s history, quite the opposite. These four examples, if I were writing Hebrews, would not have been selected to talk about faith.

Gideon. He had to be reassured over and over again that God was really talking to him. His fearful demeanor was overcome eventually, but he struggled with it (Judges 6).

Barak. A military leader who wasn’t going to go into battle unless judge Deborah went with him (Judges 4). She told him she would go, but the main story wouldn’t be his victory, it would be that he had to have a woman by his side to go into battle.

Samson. Really? Dumb, dumb, dumb. He had no insight into the depth of Delilah’s deceptions (Judges 16), but he did have plenty of chances to figure it out.

Jephthah. Promised to sacrifice the first living thing that came to him after his battle. Who makes an open-ended promise like this? It put him in a terrible bind when the one he loved most was the first to greet him - his daughter. (Judges 11).

How these four merited a mention in Hebrews 11 is beyond me. And I think that is the point. God took this rag-tag crew of stumblers and bumblers and made something of them. Instead of rolling his eyes and dismissing them, He demonstrated His power and grace in their lives.

If you have ever felt that you have messed up too badly, or that you just can’t get it together, remember how the author of Hebrews pulls these four names from the book of Judges. They are the overlooked, the underperforming, the not-quite-ready, the overconfident, and the unnoticed. But that’s not how God saw them.

I understand what Brennan Manning was talking about when he wrote about the ragamuffins.

“Jesus comes not for the super-spiritual but for the wobbly and the weak-kneed who know they don’t have it all together, and who are not too proud to accept the handout of amazing grace.”
― Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out

So don’t give up. Keep going up. God’s not through with you yet. Climb the next step. Look to Jesus to help you each day.

Well I've seen my share of troubles
But the Lord ain't failed me yet
So I'm holding on to the promise y'all
That He's rolling up His sleeves again.

TobyMac: Help is On The Way