Perseverance

    Ever sick of trying for the same thing over and over and over again? I'm sure we all are, especially if we are taking tumble after tumble in what we are trying for. The audience I'm aiming towards are the people who feel like a failure time and time again. A lot of times this applies to our walk with God. We think, "Oh I did it again! I'll never be good enough. This is the billionth time. I'm DONE trying." We have all had this mindset whether it was in your walk with God or whether it was just practicing your free throws for the game coming up. It's frustrating when you just can't get a hand on things, but keep in mind we all need help from a coach who knows his stuff better than we do every once in a while.

    If we are without someone to mentor us in the areas that we are just mediocre in then we'll never grow to be as successful in achieving our goal as we hope to be. Instead of sitting around waiting for things to get better we have to take action. I've learned that change requires action in order for something to be accomplished. If we truly want what we are striving for then there is no measure that won't be taken to reach the destination you want to be. It's nothing new to your ears, but "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail." We all need to have a blueprint of what we are aiming for in mind.

    If you are going to give up then you are always going to fail. So why quit? I believe I've mentioned this verse before, but Romans 5:3-5 says, "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. and hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Perseverance produces great things! If we just call it quits because it hurts to keep falling then we are never going to rise up to our potential.

    We already know that we are going to suffer in our weakness so it is alleviating to know that it can produce something so beautiful from something that was once so ugly. We are always going to have weaknesses here and there, but when we let it produce perseverance then we can absorb even more great things from that alone. If we overlook our failure in a way where we learn from it and continue to get back up on our feet then it shows character: the kind that says you are stronger than you look, the kind that shows you're braver than you feel, and that very kind that makes you more courageous than you speak. Last but not least we all know from the verse that character produces hope. God is the source of ALL hope, that very hope that keeps us going. I find it strange that the verse mentions hope last.

    But if you take a look at the verse and meditate on it, really how ironic is it? You might be confused about the placement of jargon in Romans 5:3-5. Yes, if perseverance produces character and character hope, then perseverance can produce hope. Perseverance is persisting in a course of action, purpose, or belief; but hope is what keeps us going in that direction. I believe the placement of these words have a hidden meaning. Hope is what keeps us going and if we persevere then the hope that it produces is the hope that will make it easier for you to stay on that path. So the hope you can have now is the hope that things will get better and the hope you'll have after you actually persevere is that things will get easier as you keep on going. So remember when we feel as if we have nothing left remember that we still have hope.