Never Give Up
But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. ‘
Acts 27:22
Never Give Up
How do you react when God speaks to you?
Do you sit there patiently and listen for the whole answer?
Or do you keep moving forward in the direction you originally wanted to move?
I have done both and honestly I will probably do both again. The real problem with not listening to the whole answer is that we tend to get busy and stop listening before all of the instructions are given.
Just like a kid.
In the book of Acts Chapter 27 Paul warned the crew of the ship not to continue on, even after they had had massive difficulty getting to where they were.
“Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.” Acts 27:10
God spoke to these people through Paul. He told them if they chose to continue on the journey it was going to be disastrous.
If we continued to read through Chapter 27 we would find that it was indeed disastrous.
BUT….
God still spared everyone’s life that was on that boat.
Sound familiar? Yeah like every day of my life.
God shows me that I need to change direction by making things more difficult than they should be, but I still don’t listen. Then he prompts me to listen with someone’s advice.
Then after I continue to choose to go my own direction, he shows me just how hard it can be.
After I “wreck” he saves me.
Just like he did here.
You are probably asking, How does all this relate to never giving up?
We are getting there, I promise.
About 14 days into a HUGE storm, the boat was starting to break apart. They literally tied ropes around the hull to help it stay together.
Talk about scary.
Then Paul came to them again and encouraged them. “I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed.” Acts 27:22
He didn’t stop there though. He took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. Acts 27: 35.
Why is this so important?
Because he didn’t take credit for anything that was about to happen.
Paul gave full credit to God when he shared his belief with them through prayer.
The exact same way we should do it.
We should always have the courage to pray.
The bible doesn’t tell him Paul’s prayer, but I am sure that he gave thanks for everyone and everything that had happened. And prayed for the continued safety of the whole crew.
Today we want to encourage everyone to never give up. When things seem tough, keep moving forward. Of course listen to God, but keep moving in the direction he needs you to.
We also want to encourage everyone to be the person God designed you to be.
If that’s an actor, then go act. If that’s a plumber, then go unclog those pipes, if that’s a teacher, then go spread your knowledge. If that’s a motivational speaker, then go motivate.
I think you get the point.
Things to think about:
When was the last time you were encouraged by someone?
When was the last time you encouraged someone else?
What can you do today to encourage someone around you to have faith and trust that it is all going to work out exactly the way it should.
Prayer
Lord, God almighty, today we come to you simply to say thank you. Thank you for always being there for us. Thank you for always helping to guide us on our adventures. Yes they are all adventures. God, thank you for giving us the encouragement we need in order to succeed. Thank you for allowing us to give others the encouragement they need. Lord, we do pray that you would help us to slow down and listen to you. Help us to hear what you have to say and actually listen to you. Help us not stop listening in the middle, but listen to the whole story, then take action. I know that it’s tough, but please help us. God please be with YOUR earth and the people in it. Help to show us how to take care of it as you intended us to. Help us to give 10x more than we receive. Help us to know that you will always take care of us no matter how rough the waters are. God thank you for everything.
We ask all this in your precious son’s name.
Amen
Will you pray with us?
Mankind throughout the world throughout our current situation
All Law enforcement and emergency response personnel
For all military personal serving our country and their families
Those in Leadership positions throughout the world
Prayer
Lord, today we come to you with HAPPY hearts. We are so grateful that you give us the opportunity to change the lives of those around us. We are grateful that you give us the wisdom to change our lives and the lives of those around us. And you make it so simple. We can do it with a single smile. God today I would ask that you help us to smile more. The next time we see someone down, help us to smile for them. The next time we are down, help us to remember that you gave us the best gift ever. The ability to know you, your son, and the holy spirit. God, we are so grateful for everything you give us.
We ask all these things in your Precious Son's Name
Amen
A Little More
The other day I got a call from one of our clients.
I love talking to our clients so I always smile when I answer the phone.
“Hey Dan, one of my drivers is pulled over and they are saying that our permit doesn’t cover what we weigh. Isn’t that why we hire your team to make sure that these things don’t happen!”
My smile immediately vanished.
I was shocked because my team is amazing. and it’s not like them to miss something like 20,000 lbs on a permit.
So, I asked him, “Who have you been working with, and who was the one who called our team to get the permit?”
To get to the bottom of the problem I needed the details.
They gave me the details.
My next call was to my team. Then after I got the details I got them started on getting new permits to get the problem fixed. I’m a solutions guy, not an excuses guy.
But I NEED to know the real reason why it happened so that we can fix the issue.
My next call was to the driver so that I could see exactly what happened.
I knew he was going to be upset. He was pulled over and they were going to give him a HUGE ticket. I wouldn’t be happy either.
so……
I made sure not to smile when I made the call. I had a serious look on my face. As we chatted I learned that he was the person who gave his weight to our team. I asked where he got the weights from and how in the world they were off by over 20K lbs!
That’s when he told me that he might have gotten the wrong scale ticket from the weigh station where he originally weighed.
Immediately my heart leapt with joy, this is NOT our fault!
Now to get the problem resolved and get this driver back on the road was my only goal. I was not going to assign blame or make anyone feel bad.
Hey, we all make mistakes. I do it multiple times every single day.
The owner of the company shot me a text. I'm getting permits from the big guys. They won’t make these mistakes that cost me time and $$$$$.
No problem. Let me know if you need anything. We are here to help.
Well……..
After they called the “BIG Guys” they called me about 30 minutes later.
Hey, we can’t get an Idaho permit until Monday. It’s Friday night. And we need to drop this load off tomorrow afternoon.
I told him that I would NOT make any promises.
But my team went to work!
Guess what????
We got the permits that the “BIG Guys” couldn’t get.
My team had the Idaho permit in less than 20 minutes. For the right weight this time.
Here’s the point of all this.
When things don’t go right, smile. I have taught my whole team this.
That right there is how we got the permits. They smiled as they worked and it didn’t take any time at all.
Ok, there might be a little knowledge that went into this too. Lol
Next time you need anything DOT, don’t call the “Big Guys” , call the team who can get it done!
Dan Greer
