Daily devotion – Don’t quit!
Timothy 4:5
“But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
We live in a world where quitting has become fashionable—where giving up when things get tough is often seen as acceptable.
But here in 2 Timothy 4:5, the apostle Paul urges young Timothy to take a different path. He warns him not to follow the crowd, not to tickle people’s ears with what they want to hear, but instead to endure afflictions and remain faithful.
Over the years, I’ve seen many fold like a deckchair when things got tough in their walk with God. But the Christian life is not a walk in the park—it’s a spiritual battlefield.
When we receive Christ, we enlist in the Lord’s army and enter into a battle against Satan and the kingdom of darkness. Paul had been that example to Timothy for more than thirty years—watching in all things, enduring hardship, and remaining faithful through it all.
Paul reminds us that we must be willing to suffer for the truth of the Gospel. As believers living in an ungodly world, we will encounter opposition. The enemy does not want men and women living for God. When Paul wrote these words, he knew he was about to be executed for preaching Christ—yet he never wavered.
So often, people expect the Christian life to be problem-free. But trials and hardships are part of the journey. If you are finding things tough in your walk with God, if you’re going through battles and facing trials, know this: that is normal for a follower of Christ.
In Jesus’ parable of the sower and the seed in Matthew 13, only one of the four soils bore lasting fruit. One of the failed soils or listeners of God’s Word is called the rocky soil, Jesus said of this : “The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word.” (Matthew 13:20–21)
The point is this: in the face of fierce trials and a wicked enemy, we must remember that we are not alone. God has equipped us with spiritual weapons, and He has promised us victory. We are to endure and not quit!
Our task is simple but not easy—stay in the fight, endure hardship, and let God use us as overcomers.