How to keep going:
Get invincible help on your side
The Bible, that awesome guide God gave us to live a meaningful life, is full of stories about how to keep going.
If you're not a Christian, this article won't have much for you. But if you're a follower of Jesus, it will help you see your life from an entirely new perspective, a view that will, I hope, help you reorder your priorities and forge an intimate relationship with God.
As I write this, I'm 73 years old. I've beaten cancer twice. I was laid off from a job I enjoyed and came back stronger than before. I recovered after a couple promising relationships crashed and burned. I persevered through hundreds of rejections as a writer. I climbed out of depression, loneliness, and self-loathing.
That's my resume for this article. If you read to the end, you'll use my pain for your gain. You'll take the principles and truths I lay out and apply them in your own life.
You'll see things clearer and learn the secret of how to keep going.
Your goals and God's goals
We all have things we want to do in life. Our goals are great motivators, incentives that help us focus our energy and apply discipline to achieve them. That's a healthy thing.
If you're a Jesus follower, God also has goals for you. Sometimes they'll conflict with your own goals. It's when we can't meet our personal goals that disappointment and set in.
Ironically, unbelievers are usually much more successful in achieving their personal goals than Christians are. That seems unfair, doesn't it? The truth, however, is that the higher you rise in the eyes of the world, the more opportunities there are to break God's laws.
Men and women in business may lie, cheat, and step on other people to get ahead. They justify those actions because people around them are doing it or it seems necessary in corporate culture. Some executives excuse it as the law of the jungle: survival of the fittest.
Whether it's sports, entertainment, business or government, aggressiveness and learning how to "deal" are prized qualities. Some famous people are considered "nice guys" or "real ladies" by the public, but they usually have publicists and damage control experts constantly polishing their reputations. Image is important.
True Christ-followers who rise to the top of the heap are exceedingly rare. Why is that?
Author Rick Warren answered that question in the first line of his bestselling book, The Purpose-Driven Life:
"It's not about you."
Whom will you serve?
About now you're asking, "What does all this have to do with how to keep going?"
It's a matter of what you worship. Jesus explained it like this:
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Luke 16:13, ESV)
God wants us to worship him, to serve him. When our goals become our god—when we devote all our time, energy, and passion toward them instead of to God—we can't expect God's help.
Jesus wasn't talking about making just money our god. Anything that takes precedence over the true God, whether it's getting married or a career, becomes an idol, and that breaks the First Commandment:
I am the Lord your God…you shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:2-3, NIV)
And here's the kicker: God won't help us when we choose another god over him.
With the tremendous challenges we face as singles, the key in how to keep going is getting supernatural help—God's help—to overcome.
I want to be perfectly clear. God is not against you and me having personal goals and pursuing them with zeal. We can have a successful career and achieve great things, but God blesses only those people who give him top priority.
How to keep going: Ask God to help
When you get knocked down, and I know you have been, God will help you get back up. In my own life, I have been knocked down by other people and I have been knocked down when I disobeyed God. In both circumstances God helped me up because in the second case, I confessed my sin and asked God to help me.
It's hard to persevere through loneliness, depression, grief, or other devastating emotions. I've found, through personal experience, taking one day at a time can help. God has always given me the strength to make it to bed time. He'll do the same for you.
It's not always easy to figure out what knocked you down, but if you are sincere in your relationship with God, he will always help you up.
The secret to how to keep going is to understand it's not about you; it's about God. Jesus showed us our purpose is to serve God by serving other people. When we expect other people and the world to serve us, we have things upside down.
When we put our focus on God and other people, somehow our burdens seem lighter. They may not go away, but we become less obsessed with them.
Over and over, Scripture assures us God is our helper. That's even one of the names Jesus gave to the Holy Spirit.
Without God's help, we're not up to the task. We'll be tempted to cut corners or go the way of our culture to survive. We may gain the world but forfeit our soul.
God's way is always the best way. Adversity is exasperating, but looking back, we can learn valuable lessons from our troubles.
With God as your ally, how to keep going no longer seems impossible. His unlimited power flows through you so you can make it through another day.
