Perseverance

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So often in life we begin something with the best intentions…as time goes by we try to push ahead on our own…”I can do this”…”I know what I am doing”…it is based on ‘I’ and any of us can only do so much alone.  We have to learn that our obsessive focus on ‘I’ eventually leads to sadness, helplessness and loneliness.

One of the hardest things I have ever done is admit that my life is not about ‘me’, ‘myself’ and ‘I’…we are not controlling every single aspect of our daily life.  The loss of a young friend to suicide sealed it for me.  That was the last event in a series of lessons that made it very clear to me there is so much more in life than what ‘I’ was focusing my attention on.  The world and Satan are not encouraging us to surrender to Jesus and that makes it even harder to see and understand but when we commit to spending time with God and we surrender our belief that we our in charge…we begin to understand a whole new level and perspective of love, joy, peace, mercy and grace.  This is not an easy commitment and like anything worth doing it takes perseverance but once you start God provides strength and best of all he gives all of us courage to over come our greatest fears…

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”

2 Timothy 1:7

(This photo was taken in the summer of 2013 in Badlands National Park in South Dakota)

When We Fall

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We will all encounter moments when we fall down while on our faith journey.   This was true for the most familiar names in the bible…Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Joseph etc.

We all fall down along the way…the key is not the fall or why we fall, what is most important is how we respond when we do fall down.  Do not turn away from God in shame…turn towards God, pray, confess and get back up again.  He knows our struggles and He will always be with us.  Psalm 51:1-17 is a great place to begin to get back up, here is a sample from that passage.

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”

Psalm 51:10-12

Patience and Persistence

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Sometimes we all wish God worked like a drive-thru…quick, cheap and efficient?  We could just pull in and get whatever we needed whenever we needed it.  Those thoughts come directly from the world we live in.  Everything in this world seems focused on the quick, convenient, fast and easy…we want more we want more.

My toughest moments in my faith journey…times when I have felt a letdown or disappointment have occurred because I lacked Patience and Persistence.

Patience – defined as “bearing pain or trials without complaint”; “showing self-control”

Persistence – defined as “to go on resolutely or stubbornly in spite of difficulties”

These are two qualities that are not promoted in our world yet when we focus on them we usually are closer to living God’s plan for our life rather than our own plan.  I have always been a better husband, father, son, brother or friend when I practice patience and persistence.

In my spiritual life I define Patience as waiting for the Lord.  He is always there and he always working his plan in your life even when you think nothing is happening.  Every interaction with another person is an opportunity and a blessing.  When we are patient we can smile and make eye contact with the grocery store or convenience store clerk.  When passing by someone we know we can say “Hi” with a smile instead of “Hey, How you doing?” as we speed past not waiting for a response because we didn’t really want to know how they were doing at that moment.  When we are patient as a friend we really listen to what our friend is saying and not thinking about what we are going to say next in conversation.  When we are patient we will be willing to sacrifice some of our own wants and needs to help others.

Persistence can be defined as never giving up of God.  Things will not go the way you want or just the way you planned but maybe you ran ahead of God and it wasn’t time for you to get that job or start that adventure.  Maybe he knows you have some more trials coming ahead.  It is not punishment, that is not how God works.  He has a plan for how he wants you to use the gifts he gave you and he knows the events you are going to encounter in life.  Your job is to learn from trials and pray about them and listen for God to respond.  For example, if you need the courage to ask someone for forgiveness or you need to forgive someone for something…pray about it daily and be watchful for that opportunity to be forgiven or to forgive…it will come.  Just be persistent about your prayer.

In closing, one of my favorite Bible verses speaks to these qualities it is this:

“I am confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord”

                                                                                                                     Psalm 27:13-14

Peace.