What do you do when you want to quit?  You have to get your mind out of the wrong place and into the right place.  Here are 7 steps to help get you there:

1.  Pray!
1 Thessalonians 5:16-19
16 Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not quench the Spirit;

2.  Think About The Victories!
Isaiah 26:3
“You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.”

3.  Share Your Burdens!
Galatians 6:1-5
Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. 5 For each one will bear his own load.

4.  Rest!
Matthew 11:28-30
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

5.  Renew Your Heart!
Psalms 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

6.  Do What You Can!
Colossians 3:23-24
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, Since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

7. Trust God!
Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

There is something really wrong with me, I still catch myself trying to earn my salvation. It would seem that my mind and thinking have been bent into going with the flow of my religion and the powers of this world. The Gospel of Grace that I think that I know so well, in some way becomes twisted into religious bondage and everyday distortion. If I am not careful, I tend to relegate my great, big, awesome God into a small score keeper tending the books, while sitting in a over sized chair. Church seems to have become institutionalized and often seems as if it is hurting more than it is helping.

Our big problem is that we tend to accept the idea of grace in theory, but not in practice. We say that we believe what the Scriptures teach about salvation being by grace, but our lives seem to always be focused on works. On most days, we are living stuck in guilt, fear and an “I just don’t care anymore” attitude, when we should be living in a free, loving, full of amazing grace miracle.

The truth is that our whole culture runs counterclockwise to grace, especially God’s understanding and explanation, which happens to be the only understanding and explanation that really matters. We become focused on a “do it yourself” spirituality and a “look out for yourself” attitude. Instead of practicing the Golden Rule of: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!”; we practice the worlds standard of “Do unto others, before they do unto you!”

Romans 2:8-10 says: For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Most of us view our relationship with God, as our chasing after and trying to catch Him, but the truth is: Our relationship with God is about Him chasing after and catching us with His amazing grace and unconditional love. God, our great lover, chases after our heart and affections and presents us with the most amazing gift ever given the gift of relationship, not based on what we have or have not done, but founded, nurtured and grown totally and completely by His amazing grace.

I don’t have to earn it! I can’t earn it, but I can enjoy it and when I do enjoy it, it makes loving Him back a very natural thing!

If Jesus were sitting across from you at this very moment, what would happen, what do you think he would say to you?  Several weeks ago, I ask myself this question and discovered a very interesting answer!  There were a lot of things that came to my mind, but I eventually began to dwell on one thing in particular.  I felt that Jesus might say to me:  “I am not nearly as interested in what you do as I am, in why you do it!”

This really got me to thinking!  I do a lot of stuff that I would put under the banner of “Service To The King!”, but I am not always so sure that I am doing that stuff for the right reasons.  I am not always so sure that I am really doing it for service to the king.  It may be more like service to myself or for myself and that is a very hard thing to admit.  When I began to admit this to myself, all these areas of my selfishness began to open up and I felt sick to my stomach.  I don’t want to be selfish, I don’t like being selfish, I want my service to the king to be pure and meaningful, because he is more than worthy.

This took me to a place of reflection, which took me to a place of repentance, which took me to a place of restoration!  Jesus says:  “Come to me all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest!”  When we come to him, honest with the mess that we are, he loves us, forgives us and restores us.  He gives us strength to live a new and better life, a life that is blessed with his promises, presence, provision and power!

What do you think Jesus might say to you???