The Cost of Quitting

THE COST OF QUITTING"For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. You have not yet resisted blood, striving against sin." Hebrews 12:3-4

This thing called the Christian life is not for the faint of heart, my friend. In fact, there are days that we all feel like throwing in the towel and quitting. A. W. Tozer's devotional reading for today was especially meaningful to me today:

"Is Satan opposes the new convert he opposes more bitterly the Christian who is pressing toward a higher life in Christ. The Spirit-filled life is not, as many suppose, a life of peace and quiet pleasure. It is likely to be something quite the opposite.

Viewed one way it is a pilgrimage through a robber-infested forest; viewed another, it is a grim warfare with the devil. Always there is struggle, and sometimes there is a pitched battle with our own nature where the lines are so confused that it is all but impossible to locate the enemy or to tell which impulse is of the Spirit and which of the flesh ...

My point here is that if we want to escape the struggle we have but to draw back and accept the currently accepted low-keyed Christian life as the normal one. That is all Satan wants. That will ground our power, stunt our growth and render us harmless to the kingdom of darkness.Compromise will take the pressure off. Satan will not bother a man who has quit fighting. But the cost of quitting will be a life of peaceful stagnation. We sons of eternity just cannot afford such a thing." A. W. Tozer -- ON CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: Habits are first cobwebs, then cables. The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. Samuel Johnson