So many times in my life I have faced things that I needed wisdom for. I needed the help of others to offer their love, support, thoughts and wise counsel to help me navigate some treacherous times in my life. I am grateful to those that The Lord so strategically placed around me and it is my hope that through this message, I too can offer up even the smallest morsel of love and wisdom to you.

As I sat down tonight and thought about this theme of ‘perseverance’ it occurred to me that it is the foundation we need to live a life that points to Jesus. Notice that I did not say a perfect life, but a REAL life that honors Him well. A life that can navigate the ups and downs and still remain strong and rooted in Him.

You see, who we were ‘yesterday’ is not who we are today. Our life will be full of incredible highs and some very low lows. Our ignorance and foolishness one day can become the very thing Christ uses to point others to Him, if we allow Him to use it. The pain we endure can become the platform He uses. He can bring healing and wholeness to the areas that were literally aching with pain. He brings perspective to the things we at one time could not understand. He replaces bitterness with His great love. Christ is a HEALER. He is a REDEEMER. He is all that is real, pure and true.

Jesus Christ provides us with the tools to run this race well through His Word, the Gospel message and what He did on The Cross for you and for me. May we never water down the Gospel by thinking we can do ANY of this apart from Him. Perseverance the ‘worldly’ way will always lead to burnout. With Jesus it is the very pace & breath we need JUST at the precise moment we need it. 

Jesus will never call us to do something that He will not equip us to do. When you think of perseverance- it is not running uphill on our own strength & fortitude. It is saying ‘Lord, I commit my ways to you. You know what I need before I need it.’ When we take this approach, it crowds out fear and replaces it with trust. When we trust, we can persevere.

• We are to SEEK His face DAILY, this means giving Him our best and not our leftovers.
• We are to build intimacy with Him and gain guidance through prayer and communication with Him.
• We are to lay down what we cannot control and allow Him to do what only He can. When we do this, it removes the fatigue and gives us endurance.
• We are to TRUST HIM. As Charles Spurgeon so perfectly stated “God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.”