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The Discipline of
Spiritual Perseverance |
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Be still, and know that I am God . . . —Psalm 46:10 |
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| Perseverance
is more than endurance. It is endurance combined with absolute assurance and
certainty that what we are looking for is going to happen. Perseverance
means more than just hanging on, which may be only exposing our fear of
letting go and falling. Perseverance is our supreme effort of refusing to
believe that our hero is going to be conquered. Our greatest fear is not
that we will be damned, but that somehow Jesus Christ will be defeated.
Also, our fear is that the very things our Lord stood for— love, justice,
forgiveness, and kindness among men— will not win out in the end and will
represent an unattainable goal for us. Then there is the call to spiritual
perseverance. A call not to hang on and do nothing, but to work
deliberately, knowing with certainty that God will never be defeated. If our hopes seem to be experiencing disappointment right now, it simply means that they are being purified. Every hope or dream of the human mind will be fulfilled if it is noble and of God. But one of the greatest stresses in life is the stress of waiting for God. He brings fulfillment, "because you have kept My command to persevere . . ." ( Revelation 3:10 ). Continue to persevere spiritually. |