Winston Churchill is often misquoted with the admonition: Never give up, never, never, never give up. In fact what he actually stated in the early hours of World War 2 was, "Never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense" (www.quora.com/Why-did-Winston-Churchill-say-never-never-never-give-up). But the point is still well taken.

Back in 2000 NASA launched a new, high-tech satellite dubbed the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE). Its mission was to "create the first comprehensive images of atmospheric plasma"—which being interpreted means scientists wanted to learn how the magnetosphere (the magnetic shield around the Earth) creates "space weather" patterns that disturb cell phone and satellite communication systems as well as electrical distribution grids. The IMAGE satellite's elliptical orbit around Earth sent it straight through rivers and clouds of super-hot ionized gas from the Sun called plasma, a key to deciphering weather in space. The mission was declared a success when the satellite it delivered to scientists a treasure trove of images from inside that outer space sea of plasma.

IMAGE completed its mission in 2002, "but failed to make contact again on a routine pass by the Earth in 2005." Perhaps an eclipse in 2007 would enable the satellite to reboot and kickstart itself, scientists hoped. But nothing in 2007. In fact, nothing at all again, leading the researchers to subsequently declare IMAGE's mission over.

But as fate would have it, an amateur astronomer in January locked on to a mysterious object in space, reported it to NASA, which in turn reverse-engineered its hardware technology in an effort to communicate with an apparently out-dated computer system that, in fact, turned out to be the long-lost IMAGE satellite! "The team will now spend the coming weeks analyzing data from the satellite to learn more about the state of the spacecraft, and maybe a little more about what it's been up to all these years" (see www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1136795.stm and www.engadget.com/2018/01/31/nasa-makes-contact-with-satellite-lost-in-space-13-years-ago for more).

Moral of the story: "Never give up."

It's an admonition all of us can draw strength and encouragement from, can't we?

1.  Never give up saving a little of your hard-earned money each month.

• "The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down" (Proverbs 21:20 NIV).

2. Never give up saying "I love you."

• "Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8 NLT).

3. Never give up believing God loves you and has fully provided for
your eternal salvation.

• "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16 NIV).

4.  Never give up praying for a friend, a family member, a lost child.

• "I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers" (Philemon 4 NKJV).

5.  Never give up dreaming that great dream for your life and for God's glory.

• "Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope" (Ephesians 3:20 NLT).

6.  Never give up hoping and living for the soon return of Jesus.

•  ". . . We wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13 NIV).

7.  Never give up sharing your faith in Him.

• "'Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you'" (Mark 5:19 NIV).

The list can be endless. But the point is singular. Never give up. After all, has God ever given up on you? Not if this promise of His is still true: "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'" (Jeremiah 29:11).

With a promise like that from a God like Him, why would we ever give up?