Perseverance

Perseverance… nobody ever likes to hear that word. Especially when you are going through some of the most intense trials of your life to date. If you ask me, that word can come across as sandpaper when it comes to me having to apply it to situations in my own life. Some examples of that could be that you are fighting old triggers in your mind and the devil keeps harassing you with thoughts of… “You haven’t changed. You’re still the same old person you were with the same chains of bondage, so why don’t you just give in already? What’s the point? You’re gonna lose anyway.” Or maybe a relationship in your life, either a family member or friend, decides to show their true colors and break your heart in the process. Another trial could be that you can’t seem to stay well, and you feel like sickness is constantly trying to creep in and wear you out. Or quite possibly, you are feeling ALL the pressures of life from your job, your finances, your health, your family and friends, and wanting so badly for things to go smoothly in your life for once. I don’t know about you, but sometimes it feels like everything is falling apart at the seams and you are just barely hanging on by a thread. Perseverance is the last thing you want to do in those moments because you are just trying to keep your head above water. 

So what do we do when we feel like this? Let’s look at what that word actually means. The definition for perseverance is this…

”Persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.”

Yikes…. That doesn’t sound like a good time to me at all. So how do we persevere? We know that we are supposed to do it because Christ persevered for us through the greatest trial of His life; by sacrificing Himself for us on the cross. But how do we do this? What is the benefit of it? The only answer that really matters comes from our Bibles. That is the first place we should look. In Hebrews 12:3 it tells us to “Just consider and meditate on Him who endured from sinners such bitter hostility against Himself [consider it all in comparison with your trials], so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

This is a sobering thought. Jesus endured through horrific suffering that fails to compare with anything that I go through. So, how can I complain about having to persevere when He didn’t do anything to deserve what He went through, and never even said a word? It also tells us in James 1:2-4 to “Consider it nothing but joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials. Be assured that the testing of your faith [through experience] produces endurance [leading to spiritual maturity, and inner peace]. And let endurance have its perfect result and do a thorough work, so that you may be perfect and completely developed [in your faith], lacking in nothing.”

So, these scriptures are telling us we should consider our trials and persevering through them a blessing to our Christian walk. That in the trials we become more like Christ and we will be lacking nothing if we allow the process to become successful in our lives, instead of a frustrating and defeating experience.

Honestly it comes down to this… perseverance is a choice. It’s all how we choose to look at it and what we are willing to sacrifice in our own lives to be more like Him. Our flesh and its desires is what gets in the way of our perseverance. In Galatians 6:9 it says “Let us not grow weary or become discouraged in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap, if we do not give in.”

And also Hebrews 10:36.  “For you have need of patient endurance [to bear up under difficult circumstances without compromising], so that when you have carried out the will of God, you may receive and enjoy to the full what is promised.”

Basically both of these scriptures are stating that if we choose the will of God over what feels good to our flesh, and we choose to persevere with a right attitude, then in His timing we will reap the benefits of ALL of His promises and we will get to enjoy them! Praise God!

So here is my challenge to myself and to the readers out there… what if we took this new year 2025 and allowed God to use these perpetually persevering times to really build us into the beautiful people He designed us to be? He wants our hearts to reflect Him so we can be vessels for His kingdom. My desire is to be used of Him, but he can’t use me if I don’t yield to Him and what my Bible tells me to do when the trials come. So, whenever you’re feeling stressed out and micromanaged at your dead end job, or feeling overwhelmed by thoughts of hopelessness, our response should always be to remember the promises of God that tell us we should persevere under trial. Because it is detrimental to our spiritual health and wellbeing as a Christ follower and in God’s perfect timing we will be blessed by our obedience if we choose His way over ours.

Hopefully this encourages us all to not make a face or sigh the next time someone says the word "perseverance".