"NEVER GIVE UP!"

She was young. Yet, there was a sense in which she was already very old having never known a season of youth. She was young - and utterly defeated; her yesterdays a series of repeated failures. She desperately wanted to give up.

Her mother refused to give up on her, and refused to let her give up on herself. She would take her daughter's face into her hands, look deeply into her eyes and speak the words that forever became etched in the younger woman's mind, heart, and soul:

"Never Give Up!"

Why do people want to "give up?" Why the need to even speak these words?

Here are some common reasons why people give up:

• The goal is too hard or it takes too long.
• They have experienced too many failures along the way. Too many painful yesterdays.

BUT ... Yesterday is Gone Forever! Let It Go! 

Consider the Apostle Paul - responsible for the persecution of those who followed Jesus. Paul could have given up, sick with remorse over the things he had done in his yesterdays. Yet, this is what Paul said, and further, lived what he spoke: 

"Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14)

We all have our yesterdays. Every one of us! Paul did; the young woman above did. 

By God's Grace, Paul did not give up regardless of his yesterdays, nor did our contemporary above. They both continued on!

Yesterday IS gone! Whatever YOUR Yesterday, please choose to Never Give Up! Pick yourself up from the shambles of your struggles and failures and move on.

Today is a New Day! 

Your Part is to Start Fresh! God will do His Part.

God has a good plan for you; a plan and a purpose to prosper you and not to harm you. A plan and a purpose to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11) 

Shall we take Him at His Word?

"Never Give Up!"