Persistence

     Over the years I have watched my husband come upon various tasks in our house or with our vehicles that were broken or needed fixing etc... and although he may not have known how to fix it at the moment, he taught himself how and through trial and error and constantly learning was eventually successful.  He has taught me so much about persistence. Persistence is defined as "firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition." and this word has been floating around in my spirit all day.  

I remember early on in our marriage and things began to get challenging as we had both brought things into the marriage that we did not realize until we were married. He brought his own battles, but for me the struggle was with abandonment issues, and major  fear from being widowed earlier in life, caused me to be controlling and did not mesh well with a man who truly was trying to be the head of household God calls men to be.    We had to work it out in marriage counseling over the course of a few months.  The first time we went, things did not get fixed...it took persistence.  I remember the first time we went did not go well, it actually was pretty ugly, but God had His hand on us.  We, even though I am uncertain how much hope we had to work things out, we continued to be persistent and continued to go.  Each time we went each week, things slowly began to get clearer.  We slowly began to not only look at our own lives and things we needed to correct clearly, but we began to see each other through the eyes of Christ.  We learned much about ourselves and each other and had better tools to maneuver through the challenges of marriage.  Marriage is a huge blessing, as are any relationships God bring together, but they take work, they take persistence.  

When I think of my very closest friendships and my small circle of my best friends, I think of how easily those friendships came about, we just meshed like puzzle pieces only God could put together.  We have  many things and personality traits in common and seem to have the same blood pumping through our veins which could only be of God.  I don't always get to see these people daily, but I know that at any second of any hour, if I need them, they will be there without hesitation.  These friendship consist of  a deep loyalty, trust, and honesty.  It has not always been easy - let me explain.  When you are in such a relationship, committed as true friends, there are times where you have to speak hard truths because that is what real friendship is made of.  Although being friends is easy, it take persistence to have built such a trust in both good and bad times.  Persistence of loyalty and love in being there not just when the weather is fair, but when it is turbulent too. Persistence

    God calls us to be persistent in soooo much.  Think about it.  We are to run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  The definition of perseverance is: "steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success." which basically is identical to the definition of the word persistence.  

This means even in the way we love others.  Even those people who continue to be hurtful, self righteous, arrogant, jealous and flat out mean.....even those people, the ones who aren't so easy to love.  He calls us to be persistent in prayer, persistent in service, persistent no matter how difficult things get or how much people hurt our hearts or those we love...we still need to be persistent even in forgiveness. Ouch. 

    Because of my husbands persistence, I have watched him for years fix things on our cars and save us thousands of dollars. I have watched him refinish our entire basement after a flood we had years ago, and now I'm watching him work hard on fixing one room at a time upstairs to update the house, again saving us thousands.  

I thank God mostly that both he and I were persistent in the fight for our marriage early on so that we knew how to, not only love each other better, but be honest with ourselves about our stuggles.  Being persistent isn't always easy, actually it can be super hard, but we are called to do it regardless.  We are to be persistent in being persistent. ;)  

Galatians 6:9 

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Philippians 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:17  

Pray without ceasing,

1 Corinthians 15:58 

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

I thank God that He is persistent with us.  He never gives up on us despite how difficult or stupid we may get or how far away we may get from Him, He continues to pursue us persistently.  

He is also aware of our struggles, our heartbreaks and every tear we have shed that might make us want to quit and give up.  DON'T!  He knows your hurts and your pains, yet He is continuing to remind you to press on and press through the difficulties.  

Let me encourage you today to battle on and continue to be persistent in your walk in all He has called you to do.   To move forward and not shut down, especially when you feel like it, and to continue to love others the way He continues His love for us -  Persistently