Influencers Weekly Devotional

Purposeful Perseverance By

Bryan Craig

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him Who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world cause by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness, to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control, PERSEVERANCE; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.”

2 Peter 1:3-7

The other night, over dinner, my wife and I were reflecting on a very long, difficult year, which piggybacked onto a few years before that which were not exactly great. We began to talk about the word, “perseverance.” For a moment, I was thinking “perseverance” was one of the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22. However, as we thought about it more and as we sang the little Fruits of the Spirit song my daughter learned in Christian pre-school, we realized that it is not listed as a gift. So, it is not a gift, yet it seems a crucial element needed on this journey of life. The next day, I was preparing to teach elementary kids at church, and as I opened the material, I realized that our character trait for the month was “Perseverance.” Yes, someone who wrote this children’s curriculum thought it was never too early to begin teaching these little minds and spirits about “perseverance.” They were calling “perseverance” a character trait, something that becomes a part of who I am. I am always amazed at how God will teach me every time I attempt to teach others. So, what is “perseverance?” I looked up the word in Webster’s dictionary. The #1 and the #5 definition grabbed my attention. The first definition is this: “persistent determination.” Sure. That would be my first inclination. Press on. Push through the pain. Don’t give up! The #5 definition surprised me a bit, being from a secular source: “Continuance in a state of grace until it is succeeded by a state of glory; sometimes called final perseverance, and the perseverance of the saints.” Wow! Even Webster’s is telling us that “perseverance” is part of a Holy plan, which promises to have a purpose. A good friend of mine, who is a great Bible teacher, for years has shared with men the verses above from 2 Peter 1, namely where it talks about this progression of Faith. If you’ll notice “perseverance” is in the middle of the list. The list begins with Faith- of course, it has to start there. We decide we believe Jesus died for us and we give our lives to Him. Then, all of the sudden, we want to be better people. Goodness works its way into our lives. We start to change our behavior. Then, we have a yearning to know more about God. We start reading the Bible. We start paying attention in church. We sign up for Bible studies. Our Knowledge increases. Then, the world and our flesh start to call us back to our old life. We also find that this Christian walk requires discipline. In order to keep our fleshly desires in check, we have to have Self-Control. My friend lists these first 4 legs of spiritual development down the left side of a piece of paper. Then, he writes the word, Perseverance, in big letters, on an incline, all the way up to the upper right-hand of the paper. He believes this is where the rubber meets the road. This is when most Christians stop their development. This seems to be when it gets too tough. This is when the tough trials test our faith. James tell us about this in James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” God uses the trials in our lives (and who doesn’t have trials?) to test our faith. It is easier to have faith when you are healthy, when you seem to be connecting well with your spouse, when your kids are in order and successful, when your job is prospering, when your bills are paid, when you seem to have a lot of friends, when laughter is plentiful and sorrows are few. However, invariably, life throws us curve balls. Problems and pain find their way into our lives. I know there is a line of theology out there which seems to imply that if you are God’s child and you are living right, you will be shielded from heartache and blessed beyond measure. I’ve known the Lord for 30 years, and I’ve walked closely with Him the last 15 years, and I can tell you that I have still experienced pain, grief, disappointment, sorrow, and depression. I’ve also known great, Godly men in their 80s who have told me they experience the same things from time to time. If that is not evidence enough, just do a study of the life of Paul and all the hardships he endured, not to mention the painful, wrongful crucifixion our Lord suffered. God wants us to trust Him, even when things don’t look so great, even when we have doubts. If we can keep looking to Him in the midst of our trials, before we know it, we will have climbed that mountain of “perseverance” and it will be a part of our character. So, what’s on the others side of that mountain? Just like 2 Peter 1 says, after Perseverance come Godliness, Brotherly Kindness and Love. We become agents of God as we carry the aroma of Christ to those who need to find Him. James goes further to say that we will be “mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Webster says God’s grace will carry us until we reach God’s glory. Godliness, Brotherly Kindness, Love Maturity, Completion, Glory- all of that stirs my spirit, and I know these are the reason for which I was created. These are the destiny of every believer. I have tasted some of those heavenly gifts from time to time and in different measure, and they are wonderful! My favorite devotional writer, Selwyn Hughes, says: “Have you ever wondered how it is that over the centuries men and women have stood for God in the most unenviable circumstances? The answer is this: they were fully aware of the nature of God. They remained confident that God knew what He was doing and could be trusted in the end to turn everything to good.” Men, I don’t know where you are today in life. If you are one of God’s men, especially a man who has gone on The Journey and totally surrendered your life to Christ, I suspect you have reached that mountain called “Perseverance.” God loves you too much not to take you there. Keep trusting Him- there is SO much blessing on the other side of the mountain. Download file