As women, we’re good at accomplishing 4,923 tasks in a day. We know how to persevere, right?
I thought perseverance was this mentality to just keep going, keep hustling, keep working. Maybe it’s a West Texan thing, but it’s easy to get that mindset. I’ll just pull up my bootstraps and get this done.
I’ll feed one more baby. I’ll wash one more dish. I’ll fold one more onesie. I’ll make one more meal.
I’ll put one foot in front of the other, and I’ll just keep going.
That might be worldly perseverance, but it’s not biblical perseverance.
In our theme verse for this year, Peter tells us that we’ve been given God’s divine nature—and out of that divine nature, we should be increasing in several qualities, one of which is perseverance (2 Peter 1:3-8).
So what is Biblical perseverance? I believe perseverance takes both patience AND persistence. It can’t just be persistence. And patience isn’t something we muster up with our own strong will or our West Texas moxie.
Patience is a fruit we bear when we spend time with Jesus, when we ask the Holy Spirit to fill up our empty tanks, when we let our Father prune us so that we are branches that can be effective and fruitful.
So we receive patience from the Holy Spirit, but persistence is what we do—our action.
God’s divine nature is IN US. This means that the divine power to persevere is IN US.
So how do we do this?
We have to believe the truth of God’s word. We believe that God’s nature is in us. We receive this truth.
We have to be filled with the Spirit. If we’re not full of the Spirit, then we’re just hustling in our own strength, and it’s not going to get us very far. It might feel like we’re persevering, but our tank isn’t going to make it for the long haul.
We receive God’s patience when we receive the Holy Spirit, when we welcome him in our life, when we’re connected as the branches to the vine, and then this FRUIT deposits in us.
And when we’re full of patience, we can begin to persist, to endure, to take action again and again and again.
What are our actions? What are we actually doing? We’re praying! We’re asking, seeking, knocking. What do you want? What do you need today? Have you asked for it?
Did you give up asking somewhere along the way, when it got hard and God wasn’t moving? Maybe you need to keep asking, keep knocking on that door. If your desire is in line with God’s word, then He will do it.
We can’t do these things out of order. You can persist ‘til you’re blue in the face, but if you don’t agree with God’s word, and if you’re not full of the Holy Spirit, your prayers aren’t going to have any power—and, worse, you’re going to burn out. You’ll give up praying in the gap, that period we have to endure between when God says He will do it and when He does it.
Friends, don’t get stuck in the gap. Let’s be women who persevere!
We would like to thank Laura Brandenburg for writing this post
Women's Ministry 