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I once read an intriguing definition for “persevere” in a Bible glossary. “Perseverance is the ability to endure hardship and suffering without complaining or becoming angry.”Shall I take my own inventory of this essential fruit? I had a long history of trying to circumvent hardship and suffering by whatever means necessary. I was especially good at doing the easier, softer thing. “Hard choices were the wrong choices” was my motto. Choices made, decisions left unmade, habits, lusts, and envy contrary to everything the Word of God lovingly teaches. I also had a nasty habit of crying, moaning, and complaining at any hint of physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering. Now, I must also admit that most of the suffering in my life has been self-inflicted—even since embracing Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
Where did my inability to persevere get me? So deep into the pits of despair that only a merciful and loving God could have dug me out. Also, always short of the marvelous plans that God intended for my life when I yielded to His will and cast all my hopes, cares, and concerns at the foot of the Cross.
And you know what else I found out about myself? Sometimes, like a drowning swimmer who fights the lifeguard that’s trying to save her, I have to be knocked out by life in order for God to pull me safely to shore.
Then one day, while reading the Bible I came across James 1:4, “Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” I prayed for clarity and understood, finally, the necessity to press my way—to persevere. As I kept my spiritual eyes on Jesus, the Holy Spirit imparted His strength and wisdom which allowed me to make the sometimes hard but right choices that propelled me closer to God’s perfect will for this life that He so graciously saved.
When I want to give up, and that thought enters my mind sometimes, I don’t. There are times when I want to stretch out on the road and cry out, “No more, life is just too hard!” But I’ve found that along the way somewhere God has changed my mind—my perspective—and I refuse to give up five minutes before the miracle happens.
I have found that when I call upon my Savior, I am given the ability that I could never give myself—no matter how many self-help books I read—to persevere. By the power of the Holy Spirit, I am able to go one more step, cast aside all fear, chase away my doubts, stomp down the enemy of my soul, speak life to my circumstances, command that the raging storm to cease and desist, write one more sentence, seize opportunities, let go the past, forgive myself and forgive the same person yet another time for the same thing I forgave him for the last time. I find that like I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
If there is ever a glossary in any of the books left for me to write, under “perseverance” there will be a solitary picture—Jesus Christ—nailed to the cross. He was, is, and forever will be—the definition and the example.
© 2005 Stanice Anderson www.stanice.com
