Do you ever feel like saying "the deal is off"?

I have.

Sometimes I feel like that because of what I have done.

The deal is off.

I cannot let go of the experience of my past, and as much as I might try not to, I still allow that experience define me. We walk away in an attempt to figure out some sort of new identity. We say to God and to others, "The deal is off". And we walk away.

But one thing about it, you can't face and conquer failure when you are walking in the other direction.

The deal is off.

But there are other times when we say that as well. And sometimes it has nothing to do with what we have done or what others have done.

Sometimes we say that when we are frustrated with God. He has disappointed us. He has let us down. He didn't do what we wanted, hoped, prayed-for. He didn't meet our expectation. And the disappointment is so deep within us, we believe, "I cannot trust God ever again".

The deal is off.

There is another place where we might also give in to the hopelessness of quitting.

We've failed. God has failed us (or so we think). But we have stuck with it in the church. We lack passion. We are the walking wounded. The truth is no one else even knows what has burdened our hearts and extinguished our hopes. We are just going through the motions.

We are the waking dead.

The deal is off.

What do you do when you find yourself in any of these places?

Open up to the Lord in the most honest conversation that you have ever had. Be honest about why you feel that you are so far beyond Him that redemption isn't even possible. Rage against God! Tell Him why and how He failed you. Tell Him why you think you know best. Tell Him why it hurts so deeply. Sit down with God and have a long conversation reviewing exactly how you arrived at this dead season of just going through the motions.

And then, after you sit down with God-sit down with another believer and let them know where you are.

You see, often we feel that if we really let others know us, that they would push us away. But the truth is, when we honestly and openly allow others to see the broken places in our lives-our fears, our wounds, our hurts, our disappointment-what actually happens is they are drawn to us.

Draw near to God. Draw near to one another.

And then resolve, that regardless of the disappointment-the deal is NOT off.

Remember those words from 2 Corinthians 4.

8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

Amazingly, Jesus never once said to you ... "The deal is off".

Thank God for that today. Today share your burden.