Don’t Tap Out

I can’t say that I’m a fan of boxing.  But I’m always fascinated by the will of the human spirit and what conditions have to occur before someone agrees to “tap out”.  As I understand it, a boxer can tap on the map to signal that he or she wants to give up the fight.  My devotional reading this week took me to Matthew 27:3-5.

In this section of Scripture, Judas has come to the realization that he has sold out the Lord and he wants to return the silver to the chief priests and the elders.  They basically tell him that his remorse is his issue and they don’t want the money back.  Judas throws it to them anyway and then he goes and hangs himself.  Remember now that this is occurring during the same period where Jesus is being prosecuted, sentenced to die on the cross, dying, and ultimately resurrected.

Let’s get back to Judas though.  True…Judas has veered away and made a bad decision.  But if we are honest, who hasn’t?  We may not have set up an innocent man to die but each of us has some stuff we are remorseful about.  The thing I like about Judas is that he came to his senses and realized that he needed to make a change and he sought to undo what he had done.  Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way.  We don’t get to go back and undo.  Living life through the rear-view mirror is not a possibility.  The best we can do is acknowledge where we are and move forward from there.

Moving forward is hard.  It can take time.  Sometimes we want to get from a bad place so much that we try to make it happen within our own power.  This is a dangerous place to be because epic moves require a supernatural power that only comes through and from God.  Dr. Tony Evans says that our faith has to get to the place where it believes what it doesn’t see.

What if Judas has not given up on the possibility of being forgiven and restored after the chief priests and elders refused to take back the silver?  What if Judas had gone to God to ask for restoration?  What if Judas had not “tapped out” and decided to take matters into his own hands?  What if Judas had given God a chance to do what only God can do?

I’m not sure what you may be facing, but I bet it seems really big…almost insurmountable.  And I imagine that you have devised several plans for getting through whatever it is…you know your own version of “tapping out” of the situation.  My encouragement to you is:  Don’t Tap Out.  Instead hold on even stronger.  God loves a good comeback.