I believe no matter if you’ve been saved a hundred years or just a few days, we all have moments when we just want to quit and take a time out. By quit I should say, to stop serving the Lord in whatever capacity you are serving. Whether it’s preaching, teaching, ushering, singing, or just trying to do your godly best day to day in your individual walk. It’s not an easy life by any stretch of the imagination, and anyone that says it is to God be the glory and can you help a brother out! 😊

I say this because I’m in none of those positions right now, and I still find it pressing sometimes to do what I believe God would have me to do in certain situations. Case and point, I had a heated conversation a while ago and it got ugly before it ended. I said words that I thought I had put away a long time ago, but they were still there and ready for use. After I finally calmed down, I immediately asked God for forgiveness. I’m sure He forgave me, but that’s not the point. I was left pierced with guilt and shame.

I write these articles to encourage other men like me in hopes that they too would draw closer to God, and the only thing I could think of was “How are you writing these things and not practicing them yourself”?

Days after the guilt had its way with me, I sent an email (for some reason they never received) stating that I wouldn’t be able to write these articles anymore. I didn’t feel like I qualified anymore for the task. I didn’t go to church for a few Sundays in a row and couldn’t even bring myself to pray like I used to. I prayed over my food because that didn’t take a lot of effort. I tried to go on with my daily routine as normal, but I struggled with the condemnation left behind.

One day, I heard in my spirit, “You’re giving the devil just what he wants. He doesn’t want you to write to encourage people, and he doesn’t want you to pray and communicate with God. What you did isn’t the end of the world, nor will it be; but when you stop all of what God has given you to do, then you have disappointed Him. It doesn’t matter what you think about yourself—what really matters is what He thinks.”

So, to all of us that struggle and find this walk a difficult one at times, shameful about something you’ve done or said and wanted to quit; don’t! Continue to press forward and know that you may slip and fall sometimes, but the Bibles says, a righteous man falls seven times, and he gets back up again. (Proverbs 24:16). With all the things going on in this world right now—there is No Time for a Time Out. God doesn’t time out on us, and we shouldn’t time out on Him. (May God continue to bless you, your brother in Christ…TMK).