August 18, 2010
Perseverance
We have a young man who we’re paying hourly to help on our house remodel. His lament has been about his struggle in finding a full-time job, he can’t pay his bills and he’d like some benevolent assistance. He has gotten less dependable as the weeks go by. Not only is he living from pay check to paycheck, he now wants the pay check at the end of every day, rather than at the end of each week. Actually, it would not surprise me if he were to ask for an advance on his pay. Believers often slip into a similar pattern when it comes to blessings. If we are practicing faith we want to see immediate results for our efforts. We want our obedience to be rewarded today, not next week or next month. We’ve even been known to ask the Lord for advances on blessings with the promise that our actions will follow. “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” (Heb 10:35-36 NIV)
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Gail;
-----It is perseverance that gets us into trouble. Not that perseverance is bad. The Bible tells us to persevere. Therefore it is good. But what we persevere in is not always the best hand to play. And until you die, there is always another hand to be dealt. Like an old song says, “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, and you’ve got to know when to fold ‘em.” Fortune and hardship seem so random. But on each side of seemingly random situations and events are two individuals - God on one side, and you on the other. And each player in the events of life can and does have some amount of control over the events themselves. And with this control, sometimes we persevere in aspects of a situation that are futile, that will lead to nowhere, or worse yet, that sometimes will lead to no good.
-----Yet, by God’s Word, perseverance is imperative. So then, there is also something that is imperative to persevere in. What shall it be? Are there no jobs in Montrose? If not, one should not persevere in staying here, but in moving on to where there are jobs, even if he has to sell all he has and hitchhike to get there. When one is out of work he must persevere in getting into work, whatever that may take.
-----But the fundamentally important thing always to receive our perseverance is the new life in its attitudes and character traits. Their importance is evident in the simplicity of the Bible’s expressions about them. So if we accept them, taking advantage of that simplicity in simply practicing them, then we meet God in our situations and events where He chooses to be met. And in meeting Him there, we have the best chance of finding not only the provisions we need, but also the paths in life which do not dead end.
-----So do we pray for His assistance in our troubles? It is more than a good idea. And with our prayers do we make singleness of mind by applying Biblical character and attitudes to the side of events and situations that is in our control? If we do not raise that level of our effort to meet the enormity of the situation, then, “...that person must not suppose that a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, will receive anything from God.” (James 1:8) For faith is not a mental and emotional thing only. It survives and grows in our hearts and minds only through its participation in our actions and decisions. By that participation, God will not only expand our wisdom to know when to hold ‘em or when to fold ‘em, but will also further develop our characters and attitudes in Christ’s likeness. Applying effort through faith to our prayers, we may be surprised at where we wind up and with or without what we wind up there, but we will always be pleased with who we will have become there.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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