Cultivating Spiritual Perseverance
I’m a recovering striver. I’ll out work and out worry anyone to try to make something happen! Sometimes it works, but mostly it fails, because I’ve tried to do things on my own (striving!) instead of leaning on the Lord’s power, timing, and will for my life. This is the kind of striving we’ve been called to “cease” in Psalm 46:10 - “Cease striving and know that I am God…” (NASB)
I’ve been working on this striving thing a lot lately, because, in addition to being exhausting, it’s very focused on the short term, and I want my focus to be on the long term. I want to “…run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1, NIV), not be stressed out and exhausted constantly by my own plans, ambitions, and worries.
I don’t think this idea of perseverance gets enough airtime, because immediate gratification is way more fun to think and talk about than the slow, steady pace of walking through life with faith and endurance. It’s kind of like the difference between a marathon and a sprint. Marathoners will tell you how important pacing is. You don’t use up all your energy in one burst like a sprinter would. You find a steady pace so your endurance lasts until the end. Isn’t a similar mindset required when it comes to spiritually persevering throughout our life?
We find our spiritual pace through prayer, reading God’s Word, and listening for His guidance. When we practice and apply these spiritual disciplines (the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 come to mind: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) we are more attuned to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and are filled with faith. This faith is critical in helping us run our race when we “face trials of many kinds…” as James 1:2 describes. He goes on in the next two verses to say, “…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.” (NIV)
While being tested is certainly not something we relish, the very good news here is that doing this work of cultivating spiritual perseverance positions us to be in greater spiritual alignment with what the Lord wants to do in and through us. If we focus on growing in the Lord instead of worrying about our own agenda, we put ourselves in a position to see Him “…do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…” as Ephesians 3:20 (NIV) promises. And since His work in us is always better than anything we try to do on our own, this is a glorious promise, friends!
May we cheer each other on as we commit to cultivating greater spiritual perseverance for the race marked out for us.
Questions for Reflection:
1. Do you ever catch yourself trying to accomplish something on your own without leaning into the Lord's guidance? What areas of your life do you find this happening most?
2. Does the analogy of the marathon versus the sprint help you think differently about the importance of cultivating spiritual perseverance? How?
3. We all want to grow in spiritual maturity, but the work is hard. How can we encourage each other to run the race well?
