It’s always too soon to quit

    It’s Too Soon to Quit!                         

    I like what David T. Scoates said about quitting – “It’s always too soon to quit.” Of course, if you’re doing something wrong, you ought to quit immediately. But when it comes to doing good and doing right and doing God’s will, “It’s always too soon to quit.”

   The apostle Paul didn’t say it in exactly the same words, but he taught that when it comes to serving God and preaching the gospel of Christ, it’s always  too soon to quit. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, in speaking of his ministry and efforts to preach Christ in the face of stiff criticism and disheartening discouragement and opposition, Paul twice wrote, “We do not lose heart” (vs 1, 16).  In between those two statements he lists a number of things that could have discouraged and demoralized him – not the least of which was the devil and his relentless efforts to blind people’s minds to the gospel (vs 3-4).

   And he talks about being “hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed. . . perplexed, but not in despair . . .  persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus” (verses 8-10). Yet he wouldn’t quit.

    Christ was too magnificent, the gospel was too important, and his own soul and the souls of countless others were at stake. It was tough – but it was always too soon to quit. Paul’s response in the face of critics reminds me a story about Colonel George Washington Goethals who is best known for his administration and supervision of the construction and opening of the Panama Canal. He faced huge problems with the climate and geography during the titanic project. But his biggest challenge was the increasing criticism back home from those who predicted he would never finish the project. A friend asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer your critics?”  Goethals assured him he would, in time. The friend asked, “But when?”  And Goethals said confidently and resolutely, “When the canal is finished.”

   Many years ago I received a phone call from a friend and brother in Christ, an enthusiastic Christian and a great servant to the church. He owned a successful business but also took great interest in the Lord’s business and in preachers of the gospel. He knew that at the time I had been laboring in the Lord’s vineyard for several years with a small congregation in an area where the Lord’s church was not widely known or numerically strong. From his home hundreds of miles away he called me up out of the blue one Monday morning and said, “Hello, Brother!

It’s Monday morning, and I’m calling to talk you out of quitting the ministry!” He was half-joking but half-serious, and explained his frequent practice of calling a gospel preacher on Monday morning to talk him out of quitting! We talked about the difficulties preachers face inside and outside the church. I was younger then and laughed off his talk about talking me out of quitting. 

     Many years later, I do not want or intend to ever quit, but the problems and challenges are real. And so, let me say to preachers, elders, deacons, Bible teachers, and members of the church seeking to go to heaven – we serve the same glorious Christ Paul did. Heaven is still real, hell is still hot, and eternity is forever. Souls are at stake – beginning with our own. In spite of all the discouragement and difficulties, let us push on to the finish. And if you fall down, get up and go again. It’s always too soon to quit.

--by Dan Gulley,

Smithville, TN