Hebrews 11 is the hall of fame for the faith. This chapter mentions Abraham, Sarah, Noah, Enoch and many others. There are two verses in the middle of Hebrews 11 that sticks out:
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
They all died in FAITH, not having received the promises.
Faith is more than just receiving what you are believing for in God through Christ Jesus, faith is the character of God inside of you that provokes you to serve God in the face of incredible odds without waver. I was really sick one time and the enemy came to me and said, "You have several small children and you are going to die here in this bed and leave them behind." I replied. "Well, IF I DO DIE, at least I will DIE IN MY FAITH!" I was letting the enemy know that even the threat of death would not waver my faith. In just a few day the Lord touched my body and I was miraculously recovered from my illness, but my faith was going to stand to the end no matter the result of that end.
I played sports in high school, and our team was ranked number 3 in the state. Needless to say we seldom got beat, usually when we played we beat the other team by a double digit spread. All the years that I grew up playing sports from the 3rd grade to the 12th our team was seldom beat. We were used to winning and winning big. We were in the state tournament and facing an a team that had a player that was ranked the best player in the nation. Needless to say we could not hang with this player. By half time we were double digits behind. Our team was not used to being behind like this and my teammates gave up. At half time we came out of the locker room, the band struck up and I ran out in front of our team to go out onto the court to warm up and I heard someone yell from the crowd, "Come on! Don't give up." I looked back and the rest of my team had their heads hung down and they were slowly walking back onto the court. I ran back to them and began to give them a pump talk. But, they had given up...they just quit in the middle of the game.
I see this all the time in the elderly and in people who are against terrible odds. They just lay down and quit and start asking God to take them home. You have to understand that there is something worse than losing, there is quitting. You see if I am in the fourth quarter in life, and things are going well and I am behind by double digits I still give it 110 percent. Why would I do that? Someone said to me, "Why would you do that? You are going to lose anyway. What is the use?" You see losing adds character to your life, humility, patience, learning. Thomas Edison failed many times in his attempt to make a light bulb, but he didn't quit, he kept going, and finally he won. Losing with the class and character and fighting all the way to the end contending for the faith is reward worthy, this is what Hebrews 11 is saying of those who walked in faith but still didn't receive the promises. But, giving up destroys your character, it destroys your hope, it destroys you child like faith. I might lose, but I won't give up. It's OK to play to win and then for things to go wrong and somehow things don't work out like you planned, but it is never OK to just give up and that is what makes the difference between the righteous and the unrighteous. The righteous man may fall seven times, but each time He gets right back up. You see I might not get what I want out of life, but the enemy knows that they only way he can destroy us is if he can get us to give up. I might lose a time or two, but I will never give up, I will always give 110 percent.
Some of my teammates gave up when we were playing a team with an outstanding player. Literally we could not stop this player from making points and we did lose the game. We lost, but I never gave up and really that was a huge win in the long run, because what you do when you are losing and not getting what you want out of life says more about you than when you are scoring and winning the game. How you lose says more about you than how you win. Don't give up, it isn't about winning and losing in life, is about how you played the game.
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