Never Give Up Workbook

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Hopes, dreams, and plans! These very words lift our hearts and minds as we imagine all sorts of great things. Strong, satisfying relationships, happy homes, spiritual growth, health, careers, fi nances, and more! How-ever, if you have no hopes or dreams, or if you somehow lost them, you wonder if and how they might be restored.

The great news is, God will provide for you! But seeing your hopes and dreams actually become reality won’t just magically happen. You must learn to live so that you never give up—for yourself and also as you reach out to love and help others. So let’s begin our attitude of relentless deter-mination to overcome life’s challenges right now!

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when dreams come true, there is life and joy.

~Proverbs 13:12, NLT

Never giving up is an ________________________________ you have to have about many different things in your life if you ever want to see the ____________________ of your ________________________. You have to have the attitude of “I cannot be ________________________, and I will not ____________________.”

An Attitude of DeterminationDetermination: The act of making or arriving at a decision. Firmness of purpose; resolve.1

DV D & CD S ES S ION 1

NEVER GIVE UP! Relentless Determination to Overcome Life’s Challenges Interactive Workbook and Devotional Journal

Chapter 1

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Double for Your Trouble

Return to the stronghold [of security and prosperity], you prisoners of hope; even today do I declare that I

will restore double your former prosperity to you. ~Zechariah 9:12

What responsibility do you have, so God can bless you with double for the things you have gone through in the past?

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What kind of attitudes does God not work through?

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God only works through an attitude of faith, but what do you need before you can have faith?

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How is hope related to a positive attitude?

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Hope is the happy anticipation of good—the confi dent expec-tation that something good is going to happen to you!

–JOYCE MEYER

NEVER GIVE UP! Interactive Workbook and Devotional Journal

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Prisoners of Hope!

Describe how God wants you to be a “prisoner of hope” and how this makes it possible for you to be a winner in life.

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Your Words: Disappointment and Death… or Discipline and LIFE!

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life].

~Proverbs 18:21

Let’s get specifi c. Write down the hopes and dreams you have for yourself and for others in your life. We’ve provided some examples to help you get started.

My hopes and dreams for

• Spiritual growth For myself (for example: walk with God more intimately, spend time in the Bible and prayer each day, go on a missions trip, or have boldness to witness to others)

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For others (for example: see a friend or relative be saved or ask someone at your school or offi ce to come with you to lunch to talk about the Lord)

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An Attitude of Determination

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• Relationships For myself

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For others

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• My home For myself

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For others

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• Health For myself

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For others

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• Finances/career For myself

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For others

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• Other hopes and dreams For myself

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For others

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Writing those down takes faith, but it is also a big part of an attitude of determination

We often undermine our success with our own words! Instead of being people of faith and speaking God’s Word, we tend to fall into the devil’s trap of speaking negatively.

Look at your hopes and dreams above. Be honest, and describe how you generally respond at this time in your life when things don’t go the way you planned or happen in your timing.

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Do you respond based on God’s Word or simply on your emotions or frustrations?

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What is your attitude when things don’t seem to go your way? Do you throw in the towel and declare faith doesn’t work and isn’t real, or do you dig deep and trust God?

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In general, at this time in your life, do the words you speak reveal an at-titude and lifestyle of faith, or do they reveal something else? If not faith, what are your words revealing about your attitude?

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It’s Not Magic…It’s Discipline

Our words don’t create magic formulas, but they DO affect our lives in pro-found ways. The fi rst words out of our mouths when we get disappointed sometimes set the stage for the rest of what happens in that event. They can stop the process of what God wants to do.

What is one of the best disciplines we can cultivate in our life to bring our hopes and dreams to reality?

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Write below how a prisoner of hope would speak in response to things not going the way he or she wants them to.

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Being a prisoner of hope means you cannot get out of the prison of hope you are in. You cannot get negative! You have to believe that ___________________________________ is going to happen.

Explain what evil forebodings are and how they can affect your life, even if you are not aware of them.

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Let’s think about this idea of evil forebodings versus faith. Fear is a power-ful force in the lives of many. Lots of things can cause us to be afraid—fear of sickness and disease, fear of failure, fear of fi nancial ruin, fear of rela-tionships, fear of violence, and more. The devil and the world offer plenty of opportunity to let dread seep in and control us. Yet, Jesus provides answers for them all!

Take a few moments to refl ect on your life. Are there subtle (or not-so-subtle) things you realize now that are bothering you, hindering you, or putting a feeling of fear or dread in your life?

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Overcoming the Culture of Fear

One of the most prevalent sources of fear is today’s media-driven cul-ture. Fear and dread are communicated minute by minute right into our homes, our cars, shopping centers—nearly everywhere we go—through the news, television, Internet, movies, music, and more. Advertisers and newscasters sometimes use fear to manipulate us.

Take an inventory. How much of the evil forebodings–anguish and fear–you feel in life is creeping in through the media you are watching, listening to, and reading? It can be very subtle—oftentimes we don’t even notice it, yet the devil uses these to create negative strongholds in our hearts and minds. Write down what you are allowing to infl uence you and what posi-tive changes you could make. (Should you let some of it go? Stop view-ing so much TV or Internet? Cancel the morning newspaper or monthly magazine? Turn off or change the radio station?)

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Remember, God has a great purpose for every person. In response, the devil strives to knock us off course and cause us to lose all hope. However, the biggest ene-my often resides in our own minds and is manifested in negative attitudes.

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Overcoming in Prayer!

Pray now and ask God to help you uncover evil forebod-ings and negative attitudes in your life.

“Father God, I come to You now in the name of Jesus, and I ask You to reveal Yourself to me in this area of evil forebodings. Show me now any specifi c areas where the devil, the world in general, the media, circumstances from my childhood—or any area of my life—have brought me to a lifestyle of evil forebodings, a constant fear or dread. Lord, show me these strongholds now, so I can overcome patterns of fear and dread and live a life of hope, joy, faith, and power in You.

“Holy Spirit, show me where I have negative attitudes. Jesus gave me the victory at the cross, and I praise You, God, for giving me wisdom and victory right now to overcome fear and negative at-titudes! Lord, I look to You to work within me for the positive at-titude of the Holy Spirit and Your Word as I enjoy everyday life!”

Journal what the Lord is showing you about: Evil forebodings, fear and dread, and how to overcome them:

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Negative attitudes and how to overcome them:

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What is the truth that most stands out to you in this session? How can you live it in everyday life?

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1. determination. Dictionary.com, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edi-tion. Houghton Miffl in Company, 2004, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/determination (accessed June 8, 2008).

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When was the last time you felt that way?

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It is easy to ignore the suffering from half a world away. As we go through our busy lives, the devil will try to persuade us to keep our minds solely on our own troubles. If we can’t get past our own personal feelings of hopelessness, how can we ever have hope for those in greater need?

What percentage of your thoughts dwells on your own personal life?

____ Almost never

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____ 50%

____ 75%

____ Almost always

Some people question whether God has forgotten the starving people of Ethiopia (or people with desper-ate needs in any other country of the world). Many look at these situations as hopeless. But not God. He has an answer for even the most despairing situations.

Have you ever stopped to think that His answer might be you?

First Kings 17:7–16 tells the story of a woman whose situation looked as hopeless as that of many people in modern-day Ethio-pia. Widowed and desperately poor with a child to care for, she was preparing to cook the last morsel of food she had before she and her son died from starvation. It is likely there was no one to help her, as the whole land was suffering from a severe drought.

For the needy will not be forgotten forever; the hopes of the poor will not always be crushed.

—Psalm 9:18, NLT

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What is more relentless than the light of each new day? God never gives up on us. Stop and think about that verse for a minute and make up your mind to tap into God’s relentless love, stability, and faithfulness. We can all wish and plan—but in the end, the results we hope for can only come about with an attitude of determi-nation. If you’ve given up in the past and are not very confi dent about your future, there’s good news for you—you can change your attitude! But it doesn’t come from just trying harder. Remember, you didn’t receive salvation by trying to be good. LOOKING BACK

Let’s look for any record of giving up in your life. What are some things that you’ve given up on?

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Based on Never

Give Up: Relentless

Determination to

Overcome Life’s

Challenges, Chapter 12, “Your

Own Worst Enemy”

It is because of the Lord’s mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] com-passions fail not. They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your sta-bility and faithfulness.

—Lamentations 3:22–23

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Why do you think you gave up?

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Many people who love God simply haven’t learned to depend on His power in their everyday lives. They try to attain things in their own strength. Then when they quit, they feel more disconnected from God, and the cycle continues. God knows we make mistakes and give up. But He will never give up on you, even if you’ve given up on yourself. His faithful love can carry you through any setback, whether that setback is self-imposed or not.

START FRESH If we could be perfect in our attitude and behavior, we wouldn’t need God, and we would miss out on the enjoyment of a relationship with Him. Accepting that God knows us completely and loves us un-conditionally will keep us from guilt, which can “trap” us in a cycle of giving up. This only adds more guilt and hinders our walk with God. In Philippians 3:8–12, Paul was basically saying he wanted to be perfect, but he knew he had not yet “arrived.” Read his words in verses 13 and 14: “I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward” (emphasis added).

What was Paul’s “one thing”—the thing he knew would help him make more progress than anything else he could do?

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To break out of this cycle and start fresh, stop and consider areas you’ve given up on in the past. Were you “going it alone,” relying on just your own strength and knowledge? Describe the new mind-set you want to have about living every day in partnership with God and how it differs from the way you’ve tried before.

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Your past experiences of giving up did not surprise God. Are you ready to look ahead with a new attitude of determination that fl ows from God’s ability to work in you?

On a scale of 1 to 10, how confi dent are you that you will not give up on the next meaningful thing you try? Be completely honest here; there are no wrong answers.

(Circle one) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

In detail, explain why you chose the number. What memories, thoughts, and feelings contributed to your decision?

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PRAYER

“Father, forgive me for trying to succeed in my own strength. Thank You for mercy that is new every day. I am determined to look

beyond my own willpower and abide in You on my journey.”

Documents

Never Give Up Workbook