Persevere

“Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love.

O to grace how great a debtor, Daily I'm constrained to be!

Let they goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to thee.

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love.

Here's my heart. O take and seal it; Seal it for thy courts above.”

(From the hymn, Come Thou Font)

I just finished Hebrews again. This time a verse in chapter 10 caught my eye. “Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.”

Have you ever noticed, as you read the Bible for yourself, how often the Holy Spirit encourages us toward endurance? The synonym ‘Perseverance’ is also often used throughout both testaments. If you do a word-search for the two words in any concordance, I think you might be as surprised as I to discover how often those words appear in context with our relationship with God.

And I thought, as I put the Bible down for a moment, there’s a reason God repeatedly urges us toward that character trait. It’s because we – you and I – are so easily tempted to quit doing what we know is right.

God knows us far better than any of us know ourselves. He knows of the frustrations that assail from time to time. He knows the powerful pull of worldly philosophies, the alluring seductions of a variety of temptations. He knows the anger that surges in our gut when we face situations we cannot control and which we rightly believe unjust. He knows our fears, our loneliness, our illnesses that impel us toward depression and melancholy.

No wonder, God tells us so often: “Call on Me. I haven’t left you. I haven’t forsaken you.”

No wonder He says it so often: "Persevere!"

But His exhortation does not, of course, stop there. God knows our frame. He is quite mindful that we are but dust.

And when we fall – no matter for how long, or how many times, the Father continues watching for His Prodigal Son or Daughter to repent. To return home. And start again.

Remember this: saints are simply sinners who, as often as they fall down – they get up.

Christian! You are not alone in your frustrations, your loneliness, your sadness, your temptations.

Persevere!

Our God – our ‘Emmanuel’ – is always with us.