Category Archives: Perserverance

The Romans Challenge: That We Might Have Hope

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“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭15‬:‭4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

God is good! Everything He does is good! Hope is the confident expectation of His goodness towards us. When we have hope we are expecting that God is at work in every situation in our lives to bring about the greatest good in our lives. Hope helps us to trust God, believe God, and look to God for everything we need.

On the other hand, life is hard. We live in a world that is corrupted by sin. Death, darkness, and destruction abound in our world. How do we endure in these circumstances? How do we remain encouraged to keep looking towards our HOPE of the goodness of God? The answer to this is the Scripture. God has given us His Word to teach us about Himself. What He teaches us in His Word teaches us to endure. His Word helps us to remain steadfast. It gives us stability in the storms of life. His Word encourages us. It makes us confident that God is who He says He is, and He will do what He says He will do. This is our Hope!

Do you find yourself living in despair? Are you shaken by the circumstances that surround you? God assures us that He has given us everything we need to live a godly life. His Scripture/ His Word is exactly what we need. A daily practice of engaging with His Word will enable us to live in hope. Reading His Word increases our understanding of just how good He is. The more we study it and read it for ourselves, the more we will experience Him. We can be encouraged and enabled to endure. The key is the Scripture that gives us Hope for our lives.

Father, I ask You to fill us with desire for Your Word so that we may live lives filled with Your Hope. Help us to see You better as we pick up Your Word and engage with it. We know that as we do, we will know You are good. We will have a confident expectation of Your goodness i.e. HOPE! I thank You for Your Word that enables us to live in Hope. In Jesus name I pray.

The Romans Challenge: Bear With The Failings of the Weak

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“We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself…”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭15‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We need to be patient with the people that God has placed around us. This is not easy. Especially when we know we are right in an area, and that they are wrong. I know I want people to get into line and see it my way. The truth is, my way might not be as correct as I think it is… BUT even if it truly is, I need to “bear with the failings of the weak.”

Our sinful nature always wants what it wants, when and how it wants it. It is very selfish. It is always thinking about itself… It wants to please itself. But we are to “please our neighbors for their good…” To please in the Greek means “willingly serve.” Jesus displayed this to us. “For even Christ did not please himself…” Jesus is patient with us. He bears with our failings. He is always working in all things for our good. He builds us up. We are to love like He does. To love like Jesus is to benefit and prosper those around us not asking anything in return.

Simply put… We are to be like Jesus!

This is not something that we do easily on our own. The Holy Spirit will help us if we ask Him to.

Holy Spirit, we ask You to fill us with Your Love. So we can willing serve those around us and patiently bear with their failings and weakness. We know as we serve the least of these, we are serving You! In Jesus Name!

The Romans Challenge: Suffering

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“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The images of “The Passion of The Christ” have been in my mind lately. Jesus suffered. What He suffered was for us to be able to see His glory — the sum total of all of His attributes. The prayer of Jesus right before He went to the cross has been echoing in my heart over and over again. “Not my will but Your will be done.” Jesus prayed, “Father, if You are willing, please take this cup from me.” He knew the price He would pay and the suffering He would endure. It wasn’t something He took lightly. BUT Jesus wanted only what His Father wanted, even if, it included suffering. His willingness to persevere means a victorious salvation for you and for me.

If I am to live my life as Jesus did, I will suffer. Jesus told us that our world was filled with trouble. Sin is still a factor and its consequences are far reaching. BUT we can take courage because Jesus has overcome.

The sufferings you and I are going through today are hard. We can allow it to make us bitter or we can allow it to make us better. It is our choice. As followers of Jesus, we have one aim — Be like Jesus! If we want to join Him in His victory, we will participate in His suffering. If we want to live as Jesus did, we must pray as Jesus did, “Not my will, but Yours be done.”

Whatever circumstance God has allowed into our life we can be assured He allowed for our good and for His glory. If suffering is what He has allowed, we know that His “glory will be revealed in us.”

Perseverance, in suffering, produces character, God’s character in us. (Romans 5:4) His glory — His complete attributes of love, joy, goodness, peace, kindness, etc. are revealed in us when we endure suffering.

Ultimately, when our final battle with the hardships of our world is fought, we will see Jesus face to face. We will finally be like Him in every way.

For now we are to rejoice in our suffering, because we know it is producing in us the very character of God.

Father, help us to keep in our hearts and our minds the suffering of Jesus. Help us to look at His example when hardships come. Help us to suffer as He did, fully surrendered to Your will. We thank You that as we do, we will also participate in Your victory. Help us to be like Jesus in every way, shape, and form. May our prayer always be, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” In Jesus name!

James: Be Patient and Stand Firm

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“You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.” (verse 8)
 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 NIV

If I had my way life would be easy. I would be dancing in fields of daisies every day with not a problem in sight. But this simple is not the reality of living in a fallen world. Life often is hard.

We can take comfort in the words of Jesus. He told us that we would have troubles in our world, but we could take courage because He has overcome. In each and every circumstance we face, Jesus is Victor!

Ultimately we have a hope that one day Jesus the challenges we face and the troubles we endure will end. We have a promise, “The Lord’s coming is near.” Because of that promise we are to “be patient and stand firm.”

James gives us examples of those who have displayed “patience in the face of suffering.” The prophets of old, in the Old Testament, were persecuted. Job lost everything. But in the end they all had great reward.

Through it all our focus must be on Jesus. He is “full of compassion and mercy.” His Holy Spirit has been given to us to help us.

Ultimately, for the believer, there will be a time when we will receive a great reward. Make no mistake about it, Jesus will come again! What a day that will be! Stand firm til the end!

James — Stand My Ground

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“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”
‭‭James‬ ‭1‬:‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

(Today we read James 1)

Persevere – “To persist in any business or enterprise undertaken; to pursue steadily any design or course commenced; not to give over or abandon what is undertaken” Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Life is not easy! Jesus made it clear that this would always be the case. He told us: 

““I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.””
‭‭John‬ ‭16‬:‭33‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We are told frequently to “stand firm” in the Word of God. This is another term for the word “persevere.”

James tells us that we are “blessed” (Greek — Happy) if we “persevere” or refuse to abandon what we have undertaken — our close and intimate relationship with Jesus.

There will be tests or our faith, but when we have stood firm throughout the tests we are ultimately promised the “crown of life” (eternal reward and victory).

We are told in Ephesians 6:10 that our strength to make a stand against the enemies schemes is “in the Lord and in his mighty power.”

It is not easy, but it is the best. If we refuse to persevere and give up, our enemy will not stop his assaults. They will only intensify. Because he is bent on our destruction. Jesus put it this way:

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
‭‭John‬ ‭10‬:‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Our choice is clear. Persevere — life and true happiness. Cave to the pressure — death, darkness, and destruction.

James — Consider It Pure Joy

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(Join me in reading chapter 1 of James each day this week)

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
‭‭James‬ ‭1‬:‭2‬-‭4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Nothing is wasted in our lives. Trials and testing of our faith helps us to mature. In fact, it is what God uses to make us “complete, not lacking anything.”

Perseverance in the Greek is defined as “Endurance, steadfastness, patient waiting for, cheerful endurance, constancy.”

My youngest son has spent quite a bit of time at the gym working on body building. He has told me that building muscle actually requires tearing of muscle fibers that is rebuilt by our bodies in a stronger form. Our spiritual muscles are similar. Testing of our faith through trials can produce a cheerful endurance because we know the end result will be a closer relationship with Jesus.

If you are going through a trial, God is always at work in it! You and I are meant to “consider it pure joy!” In the end our relationship with God will be stronger! Trials build “spiritual muscle” that we all need in order to “not {be} lacking anything.”