Perseverance: God's Will for You
Webster’s
Definition: Continued effort to
do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition
Wow…I don’t know about you but that describes more than one
area of my life right now and over the past few weeks I have gained great
comfort in understanding that as I pray for Gods Will that his will is for me
to persevere.
Let me share a great story with you on perseverance that I
learned from my 14 year old daughter this week.
Over Christmas Break she had a pretty tough basketball tournament and
was disappointed in how she performed.
We went to the gym later and worked on a few things and had fun hanging
out. During this time together she
shared her discouragement that her shot wasn’t falling and that she hadn’t hit
a “3” all season. I tried hard to give
her some sound advice such as it will fall, hang in there, but in the mean time
step up and hit the open jump shots, free throws and layups. This was intended to be encouraging, but at
the same time I knew these were higher percentage shots not just for her but
any player. She listened and agreed but
still insisted that her “3’s” should be falling, and it was obvious she had her
mind and heart set on this.
First game back after the break she persevered! She hit 5/8 from 3 point land and finished
with 18 points, her best game of the season!
If she had taken my advice she wouldn’t have shot the “3” after her
first attempt didn’t go in, but she kept shooting and because of that look what
happened.
I’m not sure what it is in your life right now that represents
that “3” point shot, but whatever it is Gods will is for you to persevere. In Nehemiah 4:6 “So we rebuilt the wall
till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their
heart.” This is a great example of
perseverance as the people didn’t lose faith or give up what God had called
them to do as they had their hearts and minds set on accomplishing this
task.
We might be in some real opposition right now
with our job or job search, a relationship with a friend, family member,
spouse, etc whatever it is the example set is to stay focused on the task even
in the face of opposition and/or discouragement.
“The Greatest thing that will ever happen to
you or through you will be birthed out of adversity.” Chip Ingram
This quote speaks volumes as it reminds us to
hang in there and if we are honest with ourselves as we look back we can
probably see some things we gave up on too early and had we just hung in there
great things were just around the corner.
Let’s not quit on those “3’s” in our life too
soon and remember God's Will is for us to persevere.
In Christ,
Matthew Likens
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