When hardship and adversity afflicts us Christian believers we sometimes ask the question Why does God allow it?
Bible tells us to build a strong faith in God and know that He will always walk with us through our challenges and difficulties.
We must remember that God is always the same, He never changes. He is the same in our good times and bad times. “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid…for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6).
when we face failures in life, we learn to be resilient and come into the presence of the One who is always with us.
In 2 Corinthians 4:5-18, Paul tells us 4 reasons to never give up in living for and serving Christ.
1. Face challenges to display the glory of God
When we fight against the darkness in our lives, we help shine the light on God’s goodness as we are told to be be faithful and keep telling the story of Christ so that others will see Jesus Christ in us.
2. Wonderworking power of God in our lives
In 2 Corinthians 4:7, Paul spoke of having “this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us.”
We are the clay jars with our fragile, mortal human bodies. We are not immune to pain, disease, affliction, or persecution.
The treasure that we have residing in our fragile bodies is Christ Himself, the unfading hope of our glory. In Philippians 4:13, Paul wrote, “I am able to do all things through him [Christ] who strengthens me.”
3. An encouragement to other believers
When we hold on to our faith and not give up, we are seen as an example and an encouragement to other believers to be strong just like Paul was in the Bible.
In 2 Corinthians 4:15, he wrote that he was fighting the good fight “so that, as grace extends through more and more people, it may cause thanksgiving to increase to the glory of God.”
Just the same way our faithfulness as believers provides a stirring example to others who may be facing severe spiritual battles of their own.
4. Persevere as we have life eternal
Paul wrote, “Therefore, we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:16-18).
In another place, Paul declared, “I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:37-39).
We too can say with all conviction and passion, “Never Give Up.”