You’ve considered and prayed about a situation or area of ministry. You’ve worked hard to do the best job you can. And still things go wrong. The situation goes from bad to worse. You wonder- why? Where is God in all this? Why isn’t God answering my prayers? What have I done wrong?
Around that time thoughts of giving up usually creep in because it all seems too hard.
But whatever the situation or ministry you are involved in, before you give up and decide it’s all too hard, read this story of the Samburu people in Kenya.
Everyone, it seemed had given up on trying to reach the Samburu people – around 170,000 of them. Everyone except one man, that is. When Johan, a Bible League trained church planter announced he wanted to take the gospel message to the Samburu people, his church leaders emphatically told him not to bother. It had been tried before with no result. The situation was way too hard. The people seemed not to want anything to do with Christianity. Churches in the area were being closed.
‘Thanks for the warning. But I’m going to try anyway. I am going to reach the Samburu with Christ,’ Johan said. Despite many obstacles that stood in his way, he refused to give up.
In time, the hearts of the Samburu people began to change. About a year after he started his ministry the Samburu people he baptized 111 people. Three months later he saw more than 200 Samburu commit their lives to Jesus. What if he had listened early on to those warnings and simply given up, deciding it was all too hard? How many souls would have been lost for eternity?
Don’t let Satan stop you with obstacles, discouragement, disappointments and doubts. Next time you are tempted to think it’s all too hard and feel like give up on whatever it is you believe God wants you to do, or when things start going wrong and you don’t seem to be getting anywhere in what you are trying to do, remember this story. And don’t give up!
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