Greetings, Dear Friends!
And to those visiting, I say welcome!
To persevere is to press through; to bear up under a heavy load for a prolonged period of time.
I post every Wednesday and my sole purpose is to nourish your soul along the way.
Every month I give away a $10.00 gift card. Due to popular demand, this month the card is from Starbucks! Leave a post and you may be the one to get a couple of cups of java on me!
Now on to my topic...
I don't know this for a fact, but I'm pretty sure that many of you are bearing up under a load of responsibility, waiting for a breakthrough of something hoped for, and tempted to 'move away from courage' by becoming dis-couraged.
If that's you, this post is for you!
I get the sense that for many, this season requires great perseverance. Great focus. And great tenacity.
Maybe I 'sense' this because I'm feeling the same kinds of pressures. And maybe it's just me, but this feeling always seems to present itself this same time every year.
I'm not a big fan of the October festivities, in fact I find it necessary to raise my shield a little higher in the month of October.
When life's demands press hard against my soul and Satan tempts me to despair, I know this calls me to activate two strategic elements in my walk of faith...
Press In.
Whenever things feel difficult, stressful, or simply boring and uneventful, we must stop in our tracks and plant a few seeds. Seeds of hope. Seeds of faith. Seeds of expectancy. I've said this before and it bears repeating again: God is always up to something.
The Heavens are bursting with promise. The Heavenly Hosts are busy and active on our behalf. Answers to prayers we prayed yesterday, last week, and when we were seven, have enlisted a response from our gracious Heavenly Father. Even after you die, the world will continue to benefit from prayers you prayed (that's of course assuming you prayed prayers to bless this world and the generations coming after you).
Since we're such earthbound creatures, we need constant reminders of Heaven, of God, and of His great love and involvement in our lives.
When we slow down long enough to plant a few seeds, we remember that God is growing good things all around us. He has been good to us. I heard a statistic recently suggesting that if your household income is $50,000 or above, you are in the upper 1% of the wealthiest households in the world!
John Bunyan once said, "The pathway of life is strewn so thickly with the promises of God that it is impossible to take one step without treading upon one of them."
We must earnestly seek after God because everything we could ever want or need, is found in Him.
But there's another reason.
More precious than the gifts from His hand is the treasure of knowing His heart.
He is beautifully, wonderfully wonderful.
He is a treasure beyond knowing.
He is scandalously humble.
He is terrifyingly powerful.
And He is intent on revealing Himself to those who seek hard after Him.
Nothing compares to the priceless offer of access to the Most High God.
Press in to know Him more. Or to know Him again. Or to know Him for the first time.
Press in and He'll make the way clear; the boring sacred; and the burden lighter. Press in.
Press Through.
To persevere is to press through; to bear up under a heavy load for a prolonged period of time.
The Bible says that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And that perseverance produces character (and reveals it). Perseverance leads to godliness. Perseverance matures us and completes our faith.
Pressing up against unmoving, difficult circumstances - carrying a weight we'd rather not - holding onto hope when it seems heavy in our arms - all these things make us more like Jesus.
When I consider how easy it would have been for Jesus to cancel His plan to be my Savior, I shudder. I imagine Him hanging on the cross, beaten, brutalized, and broken under the weight of the world's sin. I see Him with dried and fresh blood stinging His eyes as He looks down at a mocking, eye-rolling crowd.
How easy it would have been for Him to look up and say to God, "Change of plans. These people are not worth it."
But He hung in there.
He hung there.
For me.
For you.
Amazing love.
You MUST hang in there!
Someone once said, "There are a thousand people waiting on the other side of your obedience."
"The idea that Christianity is an unending round of mountaintop experiences is unrealistic. there is the daily routine, the menial task, the disappointing circumstance, the bitter grief, the shattered plan. Perseverance is the art of bearing up and pressing on in the face of all that seems to be against us." (Believer's Commentary, p. 2290)
'Therefore, since we are surrounded by SUCH A GREAT CLOUD of witnesses, let us throw off EVERYTHING that hinders and the sin that SO EASILY entangles us, and let us RUN WITH PERSEVERANCE the race MARKED OUT BEFORE US, let us FIX OUR EYES ON JESUS, the author and finisher of our faith, WHO, FOR THE JOY-SET-BEFORE-HIM-ENDURED THE CROSS, scorning it's shame, and SAT DOWN at the right hand of God." (Hebrews 12:1-2)
There you have it.
Since you are surrounded by a host cheering you on, hoping you'll choose to persevere, throw off everything that slows you down.
Throw off bad attitudes, low perspectives, and unbelieving tendencies. Throw them off like yesterday's clothes! (for you newbies, see my post from a couple of weeks ago).
Run with perseverance. Bear up under the weight. Believe God is good. And hang in there.
Fix your eyes on Jesus.
Press in. Press on.
It matters what you do and how you believe when you'd rather be bored or cynical.
Believe for the best. Be strong. Be courageous.
Let your perseverance be a witness to a desperate world in need!
Until next week~