Video #9 - NeVER GIVe Up, Never Surrender

In Galatians 6:9 we are told to “not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

If you’re like me - you know what it means to “grow weary of doing good.”  The battle for purity; the battle against lust and porn and masturbation can be downright exhausting – even defeating at times. 

Do you ever just get tired of it all?  Have you ever found yourself saying, “I quit!  I just can’t do this anymore!  It’s useless to try to fight this beast!”  When the apostle Paul wrote about his personal struggles with temptation, he said, “I do not understand my own actions.  For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (Rom. 7:15).  Can you relate to that?  You want to glorify God with your life, you want to be a godly man, and you want to live victorious over lust and the persistent pull of sexual desire.  Instead, you find your self looking down women’s tops, staring at pornographic images and masturbating while you fantasize – the very things we hate to do, we do!

Paul then goes on to say, “I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my (body) another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my (body).  Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me …?” (Rom. 7:22-24) 

Again, can you relate?

God’s Word encourages us to not quit.  When you feel weary, when you are tired of trying and think you’re about to give in – don’t.  God has a plan for you – a plan to bless you, not to harm you (Jer. 29:11).  He hasn’t forsaken you, and He is here with you right now, even though it may not seem like it. 

When we quit, we are saying that God has failed us.  When we give up we are saying that we don’t trust God to do as He promised.  When we abandon the battle, we are saying that God’s timetable and way of doing things doesn’t match up with our own plans for our life and we think we can do better. 

The bottom line is this:  we can’t do it on our own, and we can’t do better than God.  Our failures in the past prove that point loud and clear.  The answer is not to just give up and give in.  Remember, you can do all things through Christ, because He gives you the strength (Phil. 4:13 cp. 2 Pet. 1:3)!

When you feel the weight of the battle, when your mind is telling you to just toss in the towel and stop fighting it, go to God’s Word - open your Bible and read it. Then call your accountability partner. Remind yourself that as you are fighting for purity, as you are crawling up that hill inch by painful inch toward the victory flag, you are doing what God has commanded (and enabled) you to do.  So “be steadfast, immovable … knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58).

___________________________________
About Steve Etner
Steve Etner is a National Men’s Speaker, Author and Purity Coach (www.thepuritycoach.com). He has authored many books, including “Extreme Mind Makeover: How to Transform Sinful Habits into God-Pleasing Patterns of Life”; “The Pure Man’s Devotional Guide: A Biblical Toolbox for Purity”; and “Are You A Super Man? Becoming God’s Man of Steel.” 

Steve’s conferences, seminars and retreats focus on what God has to say about the way we think and the impact it has on our behavior. By teaching men how to live in moral purity by equipping them with Biblical answers, Steve’s goal is for men to have a re-ignited passion for Jesus and learn how to prepare their minds to successfully overcome their temptations and thus live pure lives for Christ.