Have you ever felt like quitting on the church? So has Natalie Runion, worship leader, songwriter, and teacher. But as Natalie reminds us in this week’s devotional, it’s possible to question behaviors and beliefs we have seen in the church, in religious organizations, and in Christians without quitting Jesus or divorcing the family of God. Jesus is right there with us, in the midst of our wandering and our wondering.David C Cook
Day 1
Scriptures: Romans 8:31-39, 2 Corinthians 11, Philippians 3:7-14
Sufficient Grace
Maybe for you, every political year leaves you more disenchanted with the local church. Or maybe it’s the inability to have hard and holy conversations from the pulpit on race, the LGBTQ community, divorce, pornography, and gender equality. Perhaps you never went back to church after the Covid-19 pandemic. You’re finding it hard to “stand firm in the faith” (1 Corinthians 16:13).
You’re not alone.
In 2 Corinthians 11, the apostle Paul describes what life following Jesus was like for him. Paul talks about being robbed, beaten, misunderstood, and betrayed by his own people. He then goes on to say he has been shipwrecked three times. At this point I have to ask the question. Paul, why do you keep getting back in the boat?
Why do any of us?
I have to believe Paul got back in because he knew the reward would be greater than the risk. If he quit, he’d never know what or who was waiting for him on the other side.
Paul talked about all the things that were exposing his weakness because it showed the strength of his God.
Paul confesses in 2 Corinthians 12:8, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it [a thorn in his flesh to keep him humble] away from me” (NIV).
What was God’s response?
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (verse 9 NIV).
It’s okay to admit we’ve been hurt, overlooked, rejected, and misled by people we placed our trust in. That doesn’t make us weak or incapable. Rather, with every question, every attempt to resign from this madness, every opportunity to quit, in our weakness we see the power of God. For when we are most weak, he is so strong (2 Corinthians 12:10).
Literally, the only thing that can stop us from doing what God has called us to do is if we quit and let our questions become louder than the cross and let our guilt grow louder than the grave.
“His grace is sufficient.” Let that promise rest over you.
How would you describe your relationship with Jesus? How would you describe your relationship with the church?
Day 2
Scriptures: Matthew 11:28-30, Hebrews 12:1-3, 1 Peter 1:3-12
Reasons Not To Quit
You may be asking, why does it matter if I choose to walk away from ministry or if I choose to stop attending church or calling myself a Christian? So what if I’m ready to walk away from Jesus altogether?
We can’t quit, because if we quit …
We will never see God work it all out for our good.
We won’t get to see beauty from those ashes.
We won’t get to experience the living hope we have in Jesus Christ.
We won’t see what happens when we let him fight for us.
We may not witness reconciliation and redemption in our story and the lives of others.
We won’t know the exhilarating exhaustion of running this race and hearing, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
In 1 Peter 1:3-7, we read:
What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.
I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory. (MSG)
I love that part of the scripture that says one day we will be healed and whole. That is why we cannot quit: one day he will make all things right and new.
We keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, and we’re honest with our fears as he calms the waters around us. He won’t fail us!
Make a list of the things you’d miss out on if you quit on the church and the church’s Savior.
Day 3
Scriptures: Matthew 26:14-56, Romans 12:14-21
After The Betrayal
One of the most common causes of the desire to quit is a sense of being betrayed. Someone we considered a brother or sister in Christ has cheated us, lied to us, or double-crossed us.
Is this resonating with you?
Let me sit with you in that tension right where you are in this moment. I have been hurt too. I have been wronged, talked about, betrayed, overlooked, misjudged.
And do you know who else is right there with us? Jesus.
John Bevere, in The Bait of Satan, wrote from Jesus’s point of view, “In My greatest hour of need, My closest friends deserted Me. Judas betrayed Me, Peter denied Me, and the rest fled for their lives. Only John followed from afar. I had cared for them for over three years, feeding them and teaching them. Yet as I died for the sins of the world, I forgave. I released all of them—from My friends who had deserted Me to the Roman guard who had crucified Me. They didn’t ask for forgiveness, yet I freely gave it.”
I am so glad Jesus didn’t run. I think all the time about how grateful I am that Jesus took on that cross for the joy set before him (Hebrews 12:2).
If you are a follower of Jesus, you have joy set before you, too. This suggests immediate action: Forgive what you can in the moment. Because God wants to free us from the chains of bitterness and unforgiveness, and it is worth every attempt to contend for forgiveness and reconciliation in the family of God.
It may seem like there’s a Judas sitting at your table. But your Jesus is there too. And he has shown you what to do.
Write a letter to the person who has hurt you, or whom you have hurt, and put everything on paper that you’d want to say to them but aren’t able to right now. Put it in an envelope, seal it shut, and pray over it as you give the person and situation over to the Lord. You may never send this letter, but it’s a great way to name your pain rather than letting the offense become a deep wound.
Day 4
Scriptures: Matthew 8:23-27, Matthew 14:22-33, John 16:33
It’s Not A Ghost
Whatever has caused you to want to quit on the church, it may seem like a hopeless situation. You don’t know if anything can bring healing at this point. God is going to have to show up in the situation, if things are going to get better.
Sometimes we are like the disciples when they were in a boat and unable to get anywhere because the wind and waves were holding them back (Matthew 14:22-33). They felt alone, because Jesus wasn’t with them. They were losing hope and didn’t know what to do.
Like the disciples out on the rocking seas, we are more familiar with the winds and waves of life than with miracles. Even as Jesus was walking toward them, walking on the water, it made more sense to them that they were seeing a ghost than the possibility this could be yet another miracle (verse 26).
Just a short time before this moment, they had partnered with Jesus in feeding the five thousand and watched him perform a miracle before their very eyes. Now they were in a storm, but it wasn’t because they had been disobedient. Sometimes God allows the storms in our lives so he can reveal his true identity in our situations. He will use the storms to show himself as God.
God said that life wouldn’t be easy but that he would never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5-6). God told us that weapons might forge themselves against us, but they would not prevail (Isaiah 54:17). Jesus is still a miracle worker.
This is an invitation to acknowledge a stormy season and a challenge to keep watching for the miracle.
Expect to see people you love meet a Jesus they’ve always wanted to know.
Expect relationships to be restored.
Expect God to show up and start multiplying your loaves and fish.
Remember, God meets our needs according to his riches and glory, not our level of faith or activity.
He is walking on the water, friends. It’s not a ghost.
Expect a miracle.
Dear God, I am going to trust you with my hurt and doubts. I am going to believe in your power to change circumstances. Help me to take the next step…and stay.
Day 5
Scriptures: Genesis 3:1-7, Matthew 4:1-11, Ephesians 6:10-17, 1 Peter 5:8-11
Hold Out For Life
Our enemy has one ministry: to destroy God’s children. He wants us to quit because he knows what happens when Kingdom assignments are fulfilled: crosses are carried, and graves are emptied.
Since the garden, the enemy has been trying to make us question what we know God has spoken over us. From his infamous question to Eve, “did God really say that?” to tempting Jesus in the desert, his goal has always been to place doubt toward our Father in our hearts.
He didn’t want Adam and Eve fulfilling their God-given mandate in the garden to fill the earth with people and command with purpose. He wanted Jesus taken down too, but what he didn’t count on was a plot twist where the cross would become his own demise.
Yet for now the devil is operating in the same way as always. He is “the father of lies” (John 8:44). He’s a thief who comes only to steal and kill and destroy (John 10:10). He’s a prowling lion, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).
His goal and tactics, though basic and unoriginal, still seem to catch us by surprise. It’s as if we think the work we’re doing couldn’t possibly be enough to make us a target. After all, we’re not populating the earth or saving mankind.
We have to remember: his entire goal is to get us to question God and quit our assignment. When he lost the keys to the Kingdom, we became his greatest threat as he saw for himself what happens when God finishes what he starts through his people. The result is always resurrection.
Reconciliation.
Restoration.
Eternal life.
Every. Single. Time.
I know there are good reasons why you’ve considered quitting, but hear these words: when we stay, we find the Jesus we have always wanted to know and a family worth fighting for with every fiber of our being.