Perseverance

I wonder what comes to mind when you hear the word persevere.

To me it has a sense of waiting. A time of difficulty and great opposition. When what we perceive as success individually seems so close yet so far.

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                  Persevere (From the Merriam- Webster dictionary)

Synonyms: carry on, persist, gut it out, hang in there

Related Words: hang on, keep up, follow through (with), knuckle down (to apply oneself earnestly)

Near Antonyms: give up, knock off, quit; bow, give in, submit, succumb, surrender, yield; falter, hang back, hesitate, shilly-shally, vacillate, waver, wobble (also wabble)

God will speak individually to each according to His will.

Today, I come to encourage you in your journey. With the assurance that there are great things God will do for you. His promises are sure and His Word never fails.

2 Peter 3:9 (Amplified Version)

The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what He promises, according to some people’s conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance.

Who likes to wait? Maybe the correct question is, who doesn't have to wait?

Anything that has to bypass the process of waiting is usually half-baked. Imagine having to eat half-baked bread in the morning, or buying an earthen pot that is unfinished because it refused to go through the whole shaping process.

Isaiah 45:9-10 (Message Version)

Does clay talk back to the potter: ‘What are you doing? What clumsy fingers!’ Would a sperm say to a father, ‘Who gave you permission to use me to make a baby?’ Or a fetus to a mother, ‘Why have you cooped me up in this belly?’

You are the clay in the potter's (God's) hands.

This is an excerpt from Matthew Henry's Commentary of Isaiah 28:27-29:

Afflictions are God's threshing instruments, designed to loosen us from the world, to separate between us and our chaff, and to prepare us for use. He shall proportion them to our strength; they shall be no heavier than there is need.

Do you have fights around you and within fears, feeling like the disciples in a storm ready to perish?

We are humans and just as Israelites in the desert, God speaks comfortably to us. He has taken notice of our griefs and fears; what afflictions we are under; what distresses we are in and He knows what comforts our cases call for.

This is the definition of perseverance according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary: continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition

I don't know what difficulties are in your way and the opposition you have had to endure in your journey. My encouragement today is to ask you to carry on, persevere; no good fruit is borne out of giving up.

Prayerfully. faithfully love and cherish God. Trust Him and in due season you shall reap.

Romans 5:3-5 (NIV)
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas, may this season be one of refreshing and renewal. May you find the peace and joy you seek only in God through Jesus Christ. I love you all.

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