Who can write about perseverance and not include a sports analogy. Certainly not scripture: Philippians 3:12-14, Hebrews12:1-3, 2 Timothy4:7…a google search of “Bible race verse” pulls a plethora of other verses referring to races and endurance and hope. Seek them out. Be encouraged by their words.
For my non-sports minded friend, rest assured. I will move on from sports after a couple paragraphs though. From my limited running experience, I’ve learned how crucial it is to run my race, to stay in my lane. In events, crossing into another lane results in disqualification. In life, a comparison trap brings a lie of disqualification. Briana Villarreal wrote well about persevering against lies (May 12).
I grasp, I understand perseverance in sports. I do. I get it. You push your body to the limit and keep going. You nourish and replenish and rebuild and you try again. It’s a process of stretching and growing and discipline. It’s not fun. It’s not easy, but the rewards are great. In our society those physical rewards are celebrated.
In great trials that are physically observable perseverance is acknowledged, supported, encouraged, celebrated. Praise God for the support given in my own season of caregiving for a dear family member through her illness and Heavenly victory. Praise God for the hope we have in Christ. (Isaiah 40:30-31) It wasn’t easy and many days I grew weary and many days my church family encouraged me to persevere. And this perseverance wasn’t easy. It was a season of stretching and growing and discipline. Yet in that season, I agree with what Pastor Brad said Sunday, May 8, “I don’t want to go through that again, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.” Persevering in this season was accompanied with pain, but there was also nourishing, replenishing, and rebuilding. Relationships developed deep tap roots. Faith grew. Forgiveness bore and continues to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. (Matthew 3:8)
These are visible examples of perseverance. But what about persevering through spiritual and mental battles that are not seen? In the same way, they are not easy, but the rewards of perseverance are great.
Please, please! Walk these trials out in the light with other believers. You are not alone! You are not a burden! My kids are messy, but I still love them. Life is messy, but I still love you. There is beauty and growth and development in coming to the Father who cleans up the mess for us and with us. I love to write, but my drafts are messy with cutting and rewriting and rearranging. There’s beauty in a final draft though I’m sure it could be rewritten again and again. There is beauty in revising and editing life too. We are works in progress, not bound, final copies.
That doesn’t mean we sit idle, content to have so many words misspelled that we are incoherent. No, we engage the mess and focus on one aspect at a time. Not twenty or even two. (This isn’t about spelling-it’s about what God is calling you to right now-remember also to avoid comparison lest judgement and lies enter the scene.) We are not the author. We are the page. We may have allowed lies onto our page, but God, through Jesus’s finished work on the cross and the power of the Holy Spirit, wants to rewrite our stories into one of righteousness and peace and joy (Romans 15:17).
We don’t work for our righteousness either though. We need to abide with God. Not trying to do anything for myself when I had a fractured ankle was one of the most challenging and humbling experiences in my life. Abide in God’s love as you seek to know Him
As we persevere, we need to know the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). In Spanish, there are two words translated as “to know”: conocer and saber. Saber is to know facts; whereas conocer is to know people, to meet, to become familiar with. Ephesians 3:19 uses conocer, to be familiar with God’s love-not saber-to know about God’s love. As you persevere in God’s calling and in His promises, my prayer is that you would first and foremost know Jesus. And as you consider His endurance to the cross, “that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:3
Further, my prayer is this:
“…that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:17-19 (emphasis added)
PS. Most of the scriptures included in this blog were memorized in part or whole through years of study and life. Embrace where you are at and move forward with the next step that you are called to. Persevere where you are. It’s not easy, but the rewards are great.
We would like to thank Mary Coleman for writing this post
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