The Faith to Persevere

"Perseverance means more than endurance— more than simply holding on until the end.
A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer.
God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, but our Lord continues to stretch and strain, and every once in a while the saint says, "I can’t take any more."
Yet God pays no attention; He goes on stretching until His purpose is in sight, and then
He lets the arrow fly. Entrust yourself to God’s hands.
Is there something in your life for which you need perseverance right now?
Maintain your intimate relationship with Jesus Christ through the perseverance of faith. Proclaim as Job did, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" ( Job 13:15 ).

Faith is not some weak and pitiful emotion,
but is strong and vigorous confidence built on the fact that God is holy love.
And even though you cannot see Him right now and cannot understand what He is doing,
you know Him. Disaster occurs in your life when you lack the mental composure that comes from establishing yourself on the eternal truth that God is holy love.
Faith is the supreme effort of your life— throwing yourself
with abandon and total confidence upon God.

God ventured His all in Jesus Christ to save us,
and now He wants us to venture our all with total abandoned confidence in Him.
There are areas in our lives where that faith has not worked in us as yet—
places still untouched by the life of God.
There were none of those places in Jesus Christ’s life,
and there are to be none in ours. J
esus prayed, "This is eternal life, that they may know You . . ." ( John 17:3 ).
The real meaning of eternal life is a life that can face anything
it has to face without wavering. If we will take this view,
life will become one great romance— a glorious opportunity of seeing wonderful
things all the time. God is disciplining us to get us into this central place of power."

~Oswald Chambers

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The story of a rose bush

Last semester I bought a miniature rose bush at Safeway. I know all of you real gardeners are gasping in horror and going, “She bought it WHERE???” But let that pass. I bought it at Safeway. When I bought it, it had lush, full leaves and a number of buds which hadn’t yet opened into flowers.

So, I brought it back to my dorm room and installed it on my desk where it would have some sun but not too much and I fed it and I watered it. But something strange happened. Instead of the buds opening up, they all got dry and one by one fell off. The leaves turned yellow. My reaction: “OH NO I HAVE KILLED THE ROSE BUSH!”

It was a very traumatic time.

But eventually I picked myself off the floor and thought, “Well, it is not dead yet. True, the buds have all fallen off, and the leaves are sadly depleted. But there are still some leaves. So I won’t give up on it yet.”

So, I kept watering it and kept feeding it and patting its leaves and telling it not to die. And then one day I looked at it and said, “What? Is that….a new leaf?” And it was. And another new leaf followed it, and another, and then a new stem with new leaves on it.

Finally, I knew it was going to live (unless I stopped watering it, of course). But there were still no hints of any flowers. I worried about this for awhile (what if it never bloomed again?) but I kept watering and feeding it and decided that even if it never bloomed, it would still be my rose bush and I would love it.

Around this time I went home for the summer and took my rose bush with me. I put it out on the back porch and fed it and watered it.

And then, one day I looked down as I was watering it and saw…a bud! O frabjous day!

That bud bloomed and then seven other buds appeared and began to grow and swell and burst into flower until as I am writing this, the rose bush looks like this:



Now, all of you are probably (I hope) going, “Yay, Maureen did not kill the rose bush!” But you may also be waiting for the point. Or maybe wondering if there is one. Well, the point is this: sometimes our relationships with people are like my rose bush. At first we see them and they’re full of potential for flowers and happiness and joy. And then, even though we feed and water them, something happens and the buds fall off and the leaves turn yellow and we go, “OH NO I HAVE KILLED IT!” But I think that sometimes if we keep watering it and keep feeding it and keep ourselves open to the other person, sometimes all the watering and feeding does something and all of a sudden there’s new growth and maybe it isn’t so hopeless anymore. And then you see that that there’s a bud amid all the new growth and suddenly that relationship blesses you more than you ever could have expected a few months or years ago.

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Endurance

Can't.......go on........pain.........

Gasping for air, I doubled over in the hopes of stilling the pain running rampant down my side. I flopped to the asphalt, wondering who's bright idea it was that I attempt this fiendish plan for self-castigation. I look up at the sky, wondering what heaven must be like, quite sure that if I continued in this, I would find out sooner than I thought.

I am, of course, referring to the act of running.

Running, to me, is rather like watching a lion tamer: I have the utmost respect and admiration for those participating, but would sooner eat sand than do it myself.

I am not an athlete. I will walk miles and miles and enjoy it, but don't ask me to run. I will use an exercise machine daily, and almost any toning program out there--except running.

As a teen, I once thought I'd change that. I got up every morning, and started out. I'd stop to catch my breath--and look down the rest of the driveway, out to the road. Only so much more to go. I kept moving on. Soon I learned to pace myself. To push myself past where I thought I'd die. Eventually I did gain some endurance.

I've long since left the physical running to those more adept athletically than I.

But everyday, I still run.

Not physically--not in the slightest.

My running is spiritual running.

Nearly everyday,I struggle with the same feelings I once had while running on the road. I can't do this anymore. I can't keep waiting on the Lord's timing for my life. I can't keep pouring myself out in service to others. I can't keep being contented where He has me, when I know there are other things I could be doing for the kingdom.

This pain hurts. I can't breathe, it hurts so much. I have no more strength. My endurance is gone.

I just want to collapse and die.

Dramatic, but often that's exactly how I feel.

I

Just.

Can't.

Do.

This.

Anymore.

It's in these moments that Philippians 4:13 becomes the most real to me.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

When I start "collapsing", God reminds me of my brief encounter with physical running. I remember that there is an end to the road. That endurance takes time and effort to build up. That pain is a necessary part of endurance. And that this time, I have more than my own fallible strength to lean on, while I run.

I have His.

So even when the small things get to me--like being in the same place in life for years and years,and wondering when my life will move on, I remember that endurance takes time to build. That God is gearing me up for something later on. He knows how much endurance I'll need.

The best part of running, for me, was seeing how close my driveway was. I only had a few more feet to go. Just a few more.....

But when I run spiritually, I have heaven in sight. I can't see how long it'll be till I'm there. But I know it's coming. And that's worth all the pains of running--even gasping for air--I must face.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:1-2

~Miss Deb

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