The Word We All Love To Hate

Are there things in your life that you have given up on because it’s all too hard?

Thomas A. Edison once said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

Today I want to share with you 5 reasons to change the way you think about persevering

I am a two-finger typist!  While it slows me down having to constantly look at the keyboard I lack the desire to persist and learn how to type properly.

I know there is no shortcut to learning this skill!  It will only be through practice that I will ever achieve this skill.

Even though it would make my life easier, I don’t want to put in the time and effort and discipline to see the benefit!

This reminded me of how we can be with our relationship with God.

1. How many times have we heard a great message with some valuable truth and not applied it to our lives?

2. How many times have we tried to instill a new healthy habit only to have forgotten about it in a couple of days?

3. How many times have we given up praying because the answer has not been immediate?

I am as guilty as anyone else with giving up rather than pressing through.

Perseverance is the word we all love to hate because we see it as hard, boring and requires us to be patient!

I want to encourage you that perseverance is worth it!  Perseverance can be a positive word in your life rather than a negative.

I know it sounds tedious and frustrating but it is possible to make perseverance your best friend!

I wonder what a difference it would make to our lives if we focused and persevered with the things God puts on our hearts?

What if we took one thing we learned from this Sunday’s teaching, applied it to our lives and stuck with it.  What if we did that for a whole year. 52 different things incorporated into our lives. How different would our lives look at the same time next year?

Here are 5 reasons for how perseverance can be your best friend

1. Perseverance brings great joy. There is great joy in a victory that comes after a struggle.  When we’ve had to work at something and it has come at a cost it means more to us.  Check out my post “Instant or slow cooked?” for more on this.

2. Perseverance draws us closer to God. Our reliance on God increases because we need His help to keep pressing on.

3. Perseverance brings with it lasting change rather than bouncing from issue to issue without results.

4. Perseverance helps us maintain focus and direction. Having only a certain amount to focus on at a time allows us to become more purposeful.

5. Perseverance inspires others. People see how we pressed on through the struggle and didn’t give up and this encourages them to do the same.

Romans 5:4 encourages us that the quality of perseverance is a great benefit to us.  When we embrace perseverance our character is refined and strengthened.

Perseverance turns vision into reality.

Perseverance is the unlikely hero of our lives and when we embrace it we will experience the breakthrough our heart desires.

Lord,

I choose to persevere in those areas in my life that You are prompting me to grow and change.  Please help me to continue to put one foot in front of the other and never give up knowing that by doing this I am being refined.

Amen