What a simple truth of what we must do to persevere through this life. The new testament is filled with the admonition to persevere; I found commendations and encouragement to persevere from Paul, James, Peter, and John in several books including 2 Thessalonians 1:4, Hebrews 12:1-3, James 1:2-4, 2 Peter 1:5-8, and Revelation 2:2,19. The verses that came to me first, though, are found in Romans 5:2-5. These verses taught me the value of perseverance over 30 years ago. Through those verses, I learned that I can boast not only in the hope of God, but even in my sufferings..."because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." We also learn that hope in God does not "put us to shame" because of His great love. Just as in the pictures above, life knocks us down. With perseverance, we struggle to get up and remember who and whose we are...we regain our character. From there we focus our prayers upward, gain back our hope, and stand strong once again. It can be a slow and sometimes painful process, but we have to just keep getting back up!
Although, relatively speaking, it is a minimal hardship, I have difficulty publishing this blog virtually every time I write it. Glitches happen, lines get lost, and on occasion everything I have written disappears (even though I thought I saved it). Once I had to completely rewrite an entry three times. In all honesty I feel as if the enemy is trying to discourage me from what I feel called to write.
However, there are much larger struggles that seek to discourage us from persevering. Perhaps it's that "prodigal" son or daughter that keeps getting off track. For others it's being laid off from a job they thought was a great fit for themselves and their family or not getting what they thought was the perfect house or being disappointed by an investment that looked good from the outset. I have one young friend who has struggled to regain her health for three years; just as she starts to feel better, another symptom or ailment arises. Another friend encountered a complication that landed her in the hospital just days before she was to get a hip replacement. Two other friends are battling serious cancer diagnoses, trying to find the right chemo/medicine combination to give them more time with their families. And now the corona virus...trying to juggle jobs and childcare and possible lay offs and dwindling stock investments and online schooling and caring for aging parents from a distance and decisions about how to balance all the adjustments and changes coming at us. We all have to just keep getting back up. We all have to continue persevering and building our character and maintaining our hope.
Remember Matthew 5:45? Jesus tells us, "...He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." Biblestudytools.com has interpreted this to mean that God's blessings fall on both on the just and the unjust. In the agrarian culture in which this was written, both sun and rain were needed for crops to prosper; and when it fell, it fell on everyone. More often I have heard others use this same verse to explain that hardships come to us all. David Wilkerson (Davidwilkersontoday.blogspot.com) comments, "I would be lying if I told you that Christians will observe sorrow, trouble, unemployment and depression on all sides while they themselves remain safe within a cozy cocoon of health and wealth. The Bible says God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). Job was holy-- yet he suffered! But just as God brought Job out of his affliction, so He will bring us out even though we, too, will go through the fire."
I suppose both interpretations have validity. We all have undeserved blessings and hardships. And we just need to keep getting back up when the hardships knock us down. A song I stumbled across a few weeks ago reminds us that God sees us "through the seasons". We just need to keep looking to Him and waiting on Him, knowing that the blessings are sure to come as well.