To Quit or Not To Quit

To Quit Or Not To Quit- I have always told myself that giving up, or
quitting, is not an option for me. However, upon reflection I realize that
over the years I have had to quit with some things.

First of all, I have had to quit trying to figure everything out. Actually,
the Holy Spirit dealt with me about that. One day, I felt like He was telling
me to do something. I don't even remember what that something was. But I do
remember what my response was. I told the Holy Spirit that I didn't
understand. He made it VERY clear to me that I hadn't been called to
understand but to obey. Ever since then, whenever I feel that the Holy
Spirit is telling me to do something, I think "Yes, Sir" and do it without
question.

Hand in hand with this, I have had to give up delayed obedience.
Although, delayed obedience has never been much of a problem for me. I know
that if I don't do it right away, especially if it is something that I don't
particularly want to do, I will keep putting it off until eventually I
will forget all about it. Whenever I am told to do something, and l know for
sure that it is from the Holy Spirit, I just do it before I have time to
think about it.

Another thing that I have learned to quit is worrying and fretting about the
future. I know that what will happen, will happen so there is no point
worrying about it. However, I also know that I haven't yet gained mastery
over worry. Too often I catch myself fretting over something. Usually
nothing major, like my future, but little day-to-day concerns.

I have had to learn to quit on discontentment. For the most part, I have
learned to be content to be still (I have had no choice) and let God do what
He is going to. However, I do at times question His timing, which shows
that I still haven't totally overcome discontentment. One other thing that
often brings on discontentment is when I am trying to communicate with
somebody about something and I can't make that person understand.

Still, though, there are some things that I WILL NOT quit. I will never quit
having hope for complete restoration to health in this life. That hope has
carried me through a lot of long, difficult years. After getting over the initial shock of being diagnosed with cancer,
I simply dug my  heels in even more and refuse to give in to either the
cancer or everything else that is wrong with me. I do however have days
when it all seems to be too much for me.

I will not quit on reading and meditating on the Bible, the Word of God.
Over the years, I have read the entire Bible several times and, certain
passages, even more than that. However, I have no intention of quitting. My
pastor always says that we are leaky vessels so I need to keep reading to
replace the stuff that keeps leaking out of me. Besides, just about
everytime I read the Bible, I see something that I never saw before. I also
know that it will be the Word of God that brings my healing to the outside
where it can be seen. So I continue to stuff myself full of healing
scriptures.

I will not quit on praying. I admit that most of (though not all) of my formal praying is done at church. For the most part, I just talk to God in my mind all day long. Like one might do with a human friend. If prayer is communication with God, then that is prayer. He has heard it all from me. The good, the bad and the ugly. But there is another component to prayer. And that is God, through the Holy Spirit, talking to us. I love those times. I babble so much to God that I sometimes wonder if He can get a word in edgewise. However, when the Holy Spirit wants to talk to me, He gets my attention.

I will not quit on giving praise to God. I know that He is worthy of it ALL the time, no matter how I feel. Sometimes, all I can do is praise through the tears and that is ok. However, I also know that praise is a spiritual weapon that God has given to help us fight our battles. An example. When a symptom of the cancer tries to come on me, I think "Praise God" and it will go away. But I have to keep at it. Those symptoms will keep trying to come back.

I will not not quit attending church. Yes, it  is an excuse to get out of Long-term Care, but it is much more than that to me. The main reason that I don't miss church unless I absolutely have no choice is that I know that the Holy Spirit speaks through the pastor and I don't want to risk missing something God is speaking to me through him. I know that there are lots of good speakers that I could listen to online or on tv. But those speakers don't know me so I think it is less likely that the Holy Spirit will give them something that I specifically need to hear.

There you have it. Things I have quit, or need to quit but also a few things that I don't dare quit.