Of the many qualities worthy of note in the Christian life, surely one of the most underrated must be perseverance.
Perseverance isn’t showy. It’s not a quality to raise the temperature or quicken the pulse. Perseverance is one of those things that just presses on in the background. New things get noticed. Exciting fresh initiatives draw praise. But perseverance? It’s a quality that only seems to get noticed when it disappears.
And yet perseverance is one of the New Testament’s premier attributes. Think how often it gets mentioned: “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised” (Heb. 10:36); “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them” (1 Tim. 4:16); “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial” (James 1:12); “we count as blessed those who have persevered” (James 5:11); “You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary” (Rev. 2:3).
So, in recognition of the importance of perseverance, why not notice it, encourage it and praise it.
Notice perseverance
Perseverance is easy to miss. It trundles on with patient, godly persistence and we so often overlook it. That’s why it needs noticing.
Perseverance is the children’s worker who has served faithfully in crèche for a decade. Perseverance is the patient care of a family member with dementia. Perseverance is the church treasurer quietly keeping the books year after year without fuss. Perseverance is three friends who have met to pray every week without fail for years. Perseverance is found in enduring faith in the face of long-term illness.
Such things are so ever-present you only notice them when they go missing. It often requires a conscious effort to stop and think: “How brilliant that they have been persevering in this work of faith for all these years. What a wonderful demonstration of faithful perseverance.”
Encourage perseverance
The life of faith is captured in the idea of perseverance. We see it everywhere in Scripture. Wisdom, for example, isn’t just something to gain; it’s something to hold on to.
“Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.”
“[Wisdom] is a tree of life to those who take hold of her;
those who hold her fast will be blessed.”
“My son, do not let wisdom and understanding out of your sight,
preserve sound judgment and discretion”
(Proverbs 3:3,18, 21).
Hebrews, for all its complexity, is at heart a letter given over to the encouragement of perseverance:
“We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away” (Heb.2:1).
“We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end” (Heb. 3:14).
“Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Heb. 12:1).
As well as praying for growth, we do well to pray for perseverance. Petitioning God to enable us, and others, to press on for one more year of faithful discipleship. And then giving thanks to Him when that happens.
Praise perseverance
Sometimes it can seem as if the only people we celebrate are those in whom God has worked some remarkable achievement. The man who has set aside his addiction. The woman whose work has changed the lives of hundreds. And praise God for such things.
But compared to such things, humble perseverance can seem a poor relation. So why not find ways to celebrate perseverance? At an annual church meeting we might pick out three people who have been serving for years and choose to notice them, not because they are retiring, but simply because we have stopped and noticed their perseverance. And so that we might remember how good perseverance in godly ministry is, we give thanks to God for them.
For when we notice, and praise, perseverance, we will simultaneously encourage it.
