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I wonder if you give up too easily? Do you keep wishing for the easy way out of whatever you’re facing? It’s likely you, like me, could use a lesson or two in how to persevere. Lots of people make good starts; not too many complete the course.
We read in Hebrews 12:1 that we should run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Note that each of us has a unique race marked out. Your race may be different from mine, but the important thing for both of us is to hang in there and cross the finish line.
The night is darkest just before the dawn, and all too often we quit the race when it gets dark and bleak, when the finish line is just around the corner. In the first chapter of James we read that “perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:4). Without perseverance we won’t reach spiritual maturity. That’s why we need to learn perseverance.
How often do you feel like quitting? Hebrews 12:13 says “Don’t wander away from the path but forge steadily onward. On the right path the limping foot recovers strength and does not collapse” (Phillips Translation). Therefore, we need to make certain we’re on the right path, and then stay on it regardless. Even if you’re just limping along, don’t stop. As we hang in there, our limps are healed and we’re able to cross the finish line.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2). Proving faithful is perseverance, and we can learn to be faithful and to persevere. I’ll take a faithful person any day over one with bigger talents or gifts who isn’t willing to hang in and get the job done—to stick with it through thick and thin times.