The art of perseverance (or how not to give in)
Do you remember the days of youthful excitement and enthusiasm; when you felt like you and God were a superhero dream team that could do anything and everything together? Remember when you had dreams the size of mountains, and absolutely nothing seemed impossible; when you were going to be a history maker, a world changer?
But somewhere along the line that passion began to fade, and the dreams started to die. For a while you held on to hope, you fought to stay excited, but then life began to take its toll. After all there’s bills to pay, work to be done, people to see and TV to watch. And I don’t even have children - goodness knows how you cope when there’s clothes to wash, homework to be done, games to play and mouths to feed.
With the world around us constantly trying to get our attention, waging war against us and our time, its hard to find space for the God who created it all. Never mind trying to stay excited and passionate about the things He’s done when the next thing demanding our time needs done right this minute.
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called
1 Timothy 6:12
I think I’m at an age now where I need to hear these words; where I need to make a stand and make the choice to not give in. It would be so easy for me to let life take over, to let how the world tells me to live my life take over, but I know I am designed for greater things. I will fight because I know that my Father loves me, and because I know what my Father wants of me.
I feel like I’m going through a moment of relearning and reawakening to the things God has for me, to the plans and dreams He has spoken over my life. His love for me has moved from being a theological but slightly unbelievable concept to a every moment of every day reality. I’m rediscovering who I am through Him and in Him. I’m fighting for more of him, I’m desperate to see more of Him, my honest desire is for more of Him. I hope I have the maturity and experience to know that more of Him is not going to look how I thought it would 10 years ago, but I still dream of His Kingdom coming, I still long for His glory to fall. Those aren’t distant unattainable concepts, they aren’t things of the past, they are the present reality of a people who seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. They are ours for the taking.
Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their heart on pilgrimage
Psalm 84:5
I’m in it for the long haul. This isn’t a 1 year project, a 5 year project, or even a lifetime one. Moves of God can take place over generations. Reawakening and rekindling a body of people takes time. I’ve set my heart on pilgrimage, trying to strike a balance between patience and expectation, trying to be faithful in the small things and the big things. Making sure I rejoice in the small victories and the big ones.
Let me give you an example, when we first moved to the Shankill spending any time with God was difficult, very very difficult. The realities of the place and the apparent lack of God’s presence made me feel like I was knocking my head off a brick wall. 3 years later, its changed - I’ve a real sense of freedom, an ease almost of spending time with Him. It took work and perseverance, but its a small but extremely significant victory in my life.
Its so easy to spend our time looking at what God isn’t doing that we don’t acknowledge and rejoice in the things He is doing. Pilgrimage means just that - marking out the milestones on our journey, reminding ourselves and reminding God of what He has done and what He said He would do. The Bible is full of people reminding God and God reminding people - He loves to tell a story, and He loves to hear our stories. Its a part of the cycle of life with Him.
I’ve taken some time recently to look back and I can honestly say I’m amazed by what has happened in the last couple of years, never mind the last five or six. God has been so faithful, so incredibly faithful.
This has turned into some confessional-biopic piece that I never intended! I’m only talking about me because I hope it resonates with you, because I hope it inspires you, because I hope it calls you on.
We need to persevere. We need to not give in or give up. We need to keep dreaming big with the full expectation that he will complete the work he begun. He is so far from finished, in fact he’s only just warming up. We need to ask for and call down the kingdom of heaven to here on earth, and everything that comes with that. We need to call for His glory. We need to believe in the impossible.
A verse that I keep coming back to (and have done for years) is Malachi 3.10:
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
Persevere.
Give Him it all.
Don’t hold back.
Don’t give in.
Give your full offering.
Give your full tithe.
He wants to open the heavens, He wants to give us everything we dream of.
And so much more.
So remind yourself of the dreams you had - whether you are living them out or whether you still hold them close. Remind God of what He said He would do. Remind yourself of what He said He would do. Believe that it can happen. Ask Him to make it happen. If you have no other words, then pray the only thing I seem to be able to pray right now:
God. We wait for You to come and show Your Glory here today.
Alleluia. Come.