Never Give Up
Verses Used:
Galatians 6:9
Isaiah 40:31
Proverbs 3:5–6
Psalm 34:18
Ecclesiastes 3:11
1 Corinthians 3:6–7
Devotional:
Sorry it’s been several days, friends. This one isn’t just a devotional. It’s part devotional, part story, and maybe part testimony. So stay with me, brothers and sisters.
I’ve been working through some pretty big changes in my life lately. But before I get into all of that, I want to be honest about something.
Being a follower of Christ is amazing. There is peace in knowing God. There is hope. There is purpose. There are blessings I never would have understood before coming back to God.
But there is also a hard part nobody really enjoys talking about.
The waiting.
The growing.
The learning.
The seasons when you believe God has a purpose for your life, but you cannot understand why nothing seems to be happening.
Galatians 6:9 tells us not to grow tired of doing what is good because, at the right time, we will reap a harvest if we don’t give up.
Those words hit differently when you’ve been waiting.
When Nothing Seems To Work
I believe part of my purpose involves ministry, devotionals, acts of kindness, giving, and helping people. But getting to where I am today has involved a lot of waiting.
Thankfully, not forty years in the wilderness.
But it has been about a year and a half of learning, changing directions, questioning things, praying, trying again, and sometimes wondering what in the world God was doing.
There were things along the way I believed God was leading me toward.
One of those was woodworking.
I opened the woodworking business believing it was something I was supposed to pursue. I sold quite a few planters in the spring. I built other things people seemed to love, but nobody wanted to buy them.
Some of those pieces eventually became gifts.
Was the woodworking pointless?
I don’t believe so.
Maybe the purpose wasn’t simply to build a successful woodworking company. Maybe God was teaching me something through obedience, work, disappointment, generosity, and learning to release my own expectations.
Proverbs 3:5–6 reminds us not to depend on our own understanding, but to trust God and seek God’s will in everything we do.
Sometimes we think obedience means God will make the thing we started successful exactly the way we imagined.
But sometimes obedience is simply the next step.
And then God redirects us.
That seems to be what happened with me.
My attention shifted more toward ministry, and eventually toward Giving It Forward.
And through Giving It Forward, another old flame started burning again.
Sometimes God Uses The Past
Back in 2016, one of my best friends and I opened a cab company.
He had operated one for years in Michigan, and I had about thirteen years of commercial driving experience.
So we thought, “Let’s do it.”
Neither of us was really walking with Christ back then. I believed in God, but that was about as far as it went.
Still, we wanted to build something that helped people.
We opened Henco Cab.
And at first, things looked great.
We had customers. We were running twenty-four hours a day between the two of us. We thought, “This is working!”
Except financially…it wasn’t.
We couldn’t keep up with the bills and properly maintain the vehicles. We bought a second cab before we were ready. Expenses kept outrunning the income.
Eventually, we failed.
At least, that’s what I called it then.
Fast-forward about ten years.
While running Giving It Forward, I started noticing how many people were asking for rides.
Kokomo has public transportation, and I’m thankful we do. But there are still gaps. There are people who need door-to-door transportation. There are times outside normal service hours. There are elderly and disabled people who need flexibility. There are weekends. Emergencies happen. Life doesn’t always fit neatly into a transportation schedule.
And suddenly I started seeing that old experience differently.
Maybe what I learned years ago wasn’t wasted.
Maybe failure was training.
I prayed. I thought about it. Doors started moving.
And now I’m working toward opening a new cab company:
Grace Express LLC.
Yes, I had to throw the plug in there.
God Was Still There
But here’s the part I really want you to hear.
During all that waiting, there were times I felt like God wasn’t there.
I knew Scripture said otherwise.
Psalm 34:18 tells us God is close to the brokenhearted.
Isaiah 40:31 reminds us that those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
But emotionally?
There were days I felt alone.
“God, why isn’t anything working?”
“Where is the provision?”
“What happened to the things I thought You were showing me?”
“Why does everything feel stuck?”
My faith got low some days.
But even when I didn’t understand God, I kept trusting God.
Not perfectly.
Not without questions.
But I kept going.
Then, just a couple of weeks ago, I believe I finally found my home church.
And shortly after that, something started changing.
My eyes began opening to what the next season might look like. God’s presence became incredibly real to me again—almost like a massive hug reminding me:
I was never alone.
God had not disappeared.
I simply couldn’t see what God was doing yet.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 says God makes everything beautiful for its own time.
Maybe some things weren’t happening because it simply wasn’t time yet.
Never Give Up
And that brings me to the biggest reason I’m sharing this.
Never give up.
You may feel like God has left you.
God hasn’t.
You may feel miles away from provision, but circumstances can change faster than you imagine.
Your faith may feel weak today.
Keep trusting.
Keep praying.
Keep moving when God gives you the next step.
I don’t know exactly what tomorrow holds.
I don’t know if Grace Express will become everything I currently imagine.
I don’t know exactly how God will grow Giving It Forward or God’s Grace Studios.
And I have learned enough to know that my plans are not always God’s plans.
But I trust God with the outcome.
First Corinthians 3:6–7 reminds us that one person plants, another waters, but God is the one who makes things grow.
That takes some pressure off.
I don’t have to force the growth.
I need to be faithful with what God puts in front of me.
Through Giving It Forward, I’ve already met so many incredible people. Some barely have enough for themselves, yet they still offer food or items to help somebody else.
That is what community looks like.
People helping people.
People giving what they can.
People refusing to look away when someone else is hurting.
That is what I hope God’s Grace Studios, Giving It Forward, Grace Express, and whatever comes next will always be about.
Not getting rich.
Not building my name.
Serving people.
Helping the community.
Reaching the lost.
Standing beside the broken.
Giving someone hope when life has beaten them down.
For years—even before I truly started following Christ—I knew I wanted to help people.
I just didn’t understand how.
Now I have some ideas.
I have a dream.
I have plans.
But more importantly, It was never about I. It was about God leading the way.
I’m simply a steward.
So if you’re in the waiting season right now, please hear this:
Your story isn’t finished.
Keep trusting God.
Keep doing the good God has placed in front of you.
Keep learning.
Keep growing.
Keep showing up.
And never give up.
Prayer:
God, thank You for staying close even during the seasons when I cannot feel Your presence or understand what You are doing. Help me trust You when plans fail, doors close, answers take longer than I hoped, and my faith feels weak. Give me wisdom to know when to keep going and when You are redirecting me. Help me be faithful with whatever You place in my hands, and remind me that the results belong to You. Use my life to serve others, encourage the hurting, and bring light wherever You send me. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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