My Gonna’s Keep Me Going

My Gonna’s Keep Me Going
By Rev. Elizabeth D. Rios
[Originally published in the Trestate Voice, 2003]

Many times in our life brokenness, hurt and the plain old ugly truth about humanity make us want to quit the Christian race, sit by sidelines and watch things happen while God makes things happen through other people. We are tempted to give up constantly—“they said this about me and they don’t deserve my help,” “he broke my heart,” “Christians are worse than unsaved folks, just look at the way they treat there own!,” “where was God when I needed him to heal my child!” These and more are all “I deserve to be mad at God and therefore never serve again” reasons.

Giving up seems like the best alternative most of the time. I am sure all of us have our own laundry list of why we should stop serving the Lord and why we should cease to give our gifts away in a church or ministry. But giving up is not an option for the Christian. “Whoever does not persevere and carry his own cross and come after (follow) Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27). “Be steadfast and persevere in it” (1 Peter 5:12b). We cannot, shall not, quit.

Bad things happen to everybody some time in life and it leaves people without faith or hope for the future. Robert Schuller once said “never believe in your hurts, believe in your dreams”. I am encouraging you today to believe in your dreams. We all have gonna’s in our life that we still have to attempt to reach. We all have that tugging in our hearts about a step we need to take to get us closer to the dream God shared with us about us.

In my life, when others hurt me and ran me over a few times with their words or just plain misunderstood me, what kept me going in addition to God’s grace and favor was the gonna’s He gave me. Yes, my gonna’s kept me going. When God told me “your child is gonna survive,” that gonna kept me going through two years of hospital ups and downs. When God told me “I’m gonna get you through this trial,” that gonna kept me walking the road when I had no one by my side. When God said to me, “I’m gonna make a way for you to get that scholarship,” that gonna helped me apply to school not knowing where the money would come from. When God said, “your denomination may not validate you but I am gonna validate you,” it helped me put aside confusion and hurt to realize all things at His time. And, finally, when God said to me “I am gonna use you as an instrument to reach people you never thought you could or would reach,” that gonna keeps me going today!

Sister, brother, I do not claim to have it all together. But God isn’t finished with me yet! As the saying goes, I am not what I used to be but I’m not what I’m gonna be! Neither are you. What are your God-given “gonna’s”. Are you believing more in your hurts or are you believing your gonna’s? I know you have a gonna or or two…ask the Holy Spirit to remind you of them. Remember God gave you “gonna’s” to keep you going. My gonna’s keep me going, do you have a gonna keeping you?