Perseverance

Perseverance is what we build when we persist over time. Perseverance is the quality or mindset. It’s the steady, long-term commitment to a goal, even when the road is rough. To persist means to keep going, to continue doing something despite difficulty or opposition. It’s the moment-to-moment choice to not give up.

  • Persist comes from the Latin meaning to stand firm.

Our persistence is not to change the mind of God. It is an activity in which our own mind is changed, in which we come to believe, in which we come to expect that we are worthy of our good and that our good is already on its way.

There are always people who are ready to tell you eagerly and joyfully that it can’t be done. Can’t you just see the smile on their faces when they say it can’t be done? And besides, who are you to believe that it could be? Who do you think you are? Persistence is the power that keeps you from giving up, regardless of the resistance that you run into, and persistence involves work, imagination, and strength. I wonder how many things we might have accomplished that we did not accomplish if we had been persistent, if we had kept on keeping on. Don’t you imagine that there were important times in your life when you stopped inches short of success or victory? Of course.

Persistence in Prayer is a key lesson from The Parable of the Friend at Midnight (Luke 11:5-8):

  • Jesus teaches that we should keep asking, seeking, and knocking in prayer, trusting that God hears us. Jesus tells a story about a man who goes to his friend’s house at midnight, asking for bread. Initially, the friend refuses, but because of the man’s persistence, he eventually gets what he needs. This illustrates that God responds to persistent prayer, not because He is reluctant, but because He values our faith and perseverance.

Think of persistence as knocking on a door until it opens, while perseverance is continuing a long journey despite fatigue. Both reflect determination, but perseverance tends to emphasize endurance over time, while persistence is more about refusing to stop in the short term.

Now, persistence should never be confused with stubbornness, hard-headedness. Stubbornness is a quality that resists change. Stubbornness tries to keep things the way they are and having solutions come to one as one already exists. This can lead to lethargy, inactivity, and finally depression.

James 1:2-4 teaches:

  • Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Persistence will try anything. Persistence is a measure of your emotional and spiritual maturity.

Some Bible verses about staying persistent:

  • James 1:12 – “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”
  • Romans 5:3-5 – “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”
  • Galatians 6:9 – “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
  • Hebrews 12:1 – “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus.”

And Maya Angelou said:

  • We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.

You see, winners just can’t quit. Winners must keep on keeping on. Would it not be strange to run an obstacle course that had no obstacles?

  • Life is an obstacle course and it is designed to grow us, to change us. And if those obstacles were not there, we would become spiritually and intellectually and emotionally flabby.

Consider Timur, a late-14th century Mongolian/Turkic warlord in The Story of Timur and the Ant:

  • There was once a great emperor in Asia named Tamerlane. During a battle in which his army was defeated, Tamerlane escaped and hid for a time in a barn while his men scattered in all directions. And as he sat there feeling heavy, dejected, he was lost in the woods. And I would think, feeling quite sorry for himself, wondering how could this happen to a great emperor like me? He noticed an ant trying to pull a heavy kernel of corn several times its size and weight over a mound of dirt. At each time, the ant failed, and the corn fell backwards. But still that ant kept on and on and on. It just wouldn’t stop trying. Tamerlane was intrigued with what he felt to be the stupidity of the ant. Until much to his amazement, on the 69th attempt, that ant reached the top and descended triumphantly on the other side. And as Tamerlane sat there thinking about the tenacity and courage of that tiny creature, he suddenly realized that his own defeat was only temporary. He really wasn’t defeated until he stopped trying. So, he got up and went out into the darkness and reassembled his scattered forces, infusing them with the same determination which now was in him. In a surprise attack at dawn, he defeated the enemy for one of his greatest victories. And such is the power of persistence and determination.

Persistence is a quality of your spirit, of your soul. This is a persistent universe. It keeps on and on and on. It never stops. Proverbs, the sixth chapter, the sixth and eighth verses, “consider the ways of the ant and be wise. It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.”

Now, what is it that you would like to do and to be? Surely there is something that you have not yet achieved and yet your spirit desires.

  • Is there not within you a power greater than that of any ant?

Perseverance