<b>Quitting Can Be Good</b> devotion for 06-MAR-11

&lt;b&gt;Quitting Can Be Good&lt;/b&gt; devotion for 06-MAR-11

Selection Taken From:
A Year with God by R.P. Nettelhorst

Make this the year you let God's Word "dwell in you richly"---and marvel at the results! Each entry in this 365-day devotional features Scripture verses in which God speaks, accompanied by insights and applications to enhance your understanding. Learn what God says about hope and fear; perseverance and quitting; companionship and isolation; and more! 384 pages, softcover from Nelson, Copyright 2010.


Quitting Can Be Good
To this day they do according to the earlier customs: they do not fear the Luau, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances or the law, or the commandments which the LORD commanded the sons of Jacob, whom He named Israel; with whom the LORD made a covenant and commanded them, saying, "You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down yourselves to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them.
"But the LORD, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, and to Him you shall bow yourselves down, and to Him you shall sacrifice.
"The statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment which He wrote for you, you shall observe to do forever; and you shall not fear other gods.
"The covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods.
"But the LORD your God you shall fear, and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies."
However, they did not listen, but they did according to their earlier custom.
So while these nations feared the LORD, they also served their idols; their children likewise and their grandchildren, as their fathers did, so they do to this day. - 2 Kings 17:34–41 NASB

Practice makes perfect, but what if you're practicing the wrong way? You can get very good at swinging the bat with the wrong stance, the wrong grip, the wrong timing. Bad habits become hard to break. Perseverance in any direction, good or ill, becomes hard to stop.

Like father like son isn't necessarily a good thing. Perseverance isn't necessarily a good thing. God would like us to stop some of the things we keep doing. The nations that "feared the LORD" but also served their idols were Judah and Israel. God wanted them to quit their idolatry. But they persevered at the wrong thing. Hoshea, the last king of Israel, attempted to break free from Assyria and form an alliance with Egypt. The Assyrians responded by burning his capital to the ground and hauling him and many Israelites into exile. So God judged them for their persistent idolatry.

Bad habits are harder to give up than good ones. It is easier to keep doing the wrong thing than to keep doing the right thing. We seem more tempted to become weary in well-doing than in ill-doing. Generally you don't want to be a quitter. But sometimes a quitter is just what God wants you to be.