Perseverance-the ability to withstand the trial we are now facing, and the ability to face the trial we are about to endure, while remaining steady in our faith.  Is perseverance something that happens to us, or something we become capable of doing?  I am going to borrow an acronym from my pastor who shared this with us this past Sunday:

P ursue

E verything

R elentlessly

S hirking

E xcuses

V aliantly

E xpecting

R ighteous

E ndurance

Using those words it sounds like perseverance is very active!  Perseverance is not something that simply falls upon us.  In 1 Timothy 6:11 Paul tells Timothy to pursue endurance, amongst other things.  If endurance is something you pursue, than it certainly isn’t something that just happens. Pursuing is active.  Pursuing something is what we do when we want something more than anything else we might give up while on that pursuit.  What might be the "everything" referred to in this acronym"?  In 1 Peter 3:10-12 we find the word pursue again "he must seek peace and pursue it." Peace, a good thing to pursue, but why stop there, why not pursue all the fruits of the spirit! (Gal 5:22-23 )

The opposite of pursue would be to get away from, to purposefully and diligently do all we can to avoid something in our lives.  In this acronym the word Shirking is used.  Good word when it comes to Shirking Excuses!  Someone who has perseverance is not going to use their trial as an excuse to shirk their responsibility to others.  But most especially they will not use it to shirk their responsibility to God.  When the Lord is faithful to us in trial, how much faith are we showing when we use our trial as an excuse not to do what the Lord is asking of us.  Look at Paul in Acts 21:10-13 , if anyone had the best excuse it was Paul, he knew what was coming.  Yet he refused to use it because his faith was bigger than the trial he would face.  Once again perseverance becomes active, because we must choose to act on our knowledge that God has made promises that He will keep, and that his plan is for us to prosper.  We must act on our faith, our perseverance becomes active when we make decisions based on what we know about the Lord rather than the situation we are in or are about to be in.  That is what Paul did, he made his decision to act based on what he knew about the Lord.  Active perseverance.

Paul’s decision was based on what he knew about the Lord because he knew the Lord would act on His promises.  The Lord promised never to leave us, to always be with us. (Matt 28:20 )  He was expecting righteous endurance, an endurance based on what the Lord had promised him, not on what he could do on his own.  In the same way Paul acted based on what he knew about God, so must we.  When we act based solely on the circumstance we are in we fail to recognize that the One who is in us is greater then the one who is the world, and that He is able to do far more then we ask or imagine. (1 Jn 4:4 , Eph 3:20 )  Endurance is acting on what we know about the Lord rather then our circumstance.

Endurance is active, active in attitude and in action.  We should pursue it, we should look to act on what we know of God rather then our circumstance when we make decisions.  Sometimes we need to do the opposite of pursue-but that is when it comes to excuses and we shirk those, because our trial is never bigger than what God has planned.  Perseverance is not going to just happen, it isn’t just going to become part of you, make a decision in your trial today based on what you know about God rather then your situation and that is perseverance.

We know God is always molding us on His anvil, He is always doing that even when we are not facing trial, He is consistent in that endeavor.  He is going to mold us into the people He wants us to be.  So what are we gaining in trial that we would otherwise not gain?  Perseverance, and it is possible to gain joy.  That we learn from James 1:2-3 .  Why do we need this perseverance?  And is it really possible to gain joy in a trial?

Maybe we say I don’t want perseverance. If this is what I have to go through to get it I can live without it!  The first part of that answer as to why follows in verse 4 .  We also find out in Hebrews 12:1-2 that we need that perseverance to run the race that we are running.  Perseverance gives us the ability to keep running, to endure the race.  Better yet, we receive what we need as we run, as we are enduring the trial.  God will give us what we need to persevere through it if we ask it of Him.  This we learn from Matt 21:22 .  If we are asking God for things that we know He desires us to have, He will give them to us, and perseverance is one of them.  Along with that He desires for us to experience joy in the trial.

Back to James 1:2, where James tell us to "Consider it all joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." (Jam 1:2-3 NIV).  God intends for us to have joy in the trial.  He does not want us to be defeated. If we are getting the very thing God knows we need to run the race and endure it to the end–that is our source of joy in the trial.  God is giving us what we need!  We need to view our race as Paul did when he wrote to the Philippians.  He said "but one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Phil 3:13-14 NIV).  With that goal in mind, we will see that God is giving us what we need to get there, the very thing that we need to endure the race, to make it to the end.

It is not an easy task to view things from that perspective, but with God we can.  We need to be asking Him to give us what we need, asking Him to give us what He desires for us, not what we desire.  For this to happen we need to be spending time with Him in prayer doing what 1 John 5:14 says, asking God for things according to His will, not ours.