Persevering With PurposeSample

Day 1: Draw from His Presence

Perseverance is not something we’re born with, unlike the talent to run fast or to be musically in tune. Perseverance is something we need to choose; it is something we train for, and it is something we grow into.

Likewise, it is something we can lose; something we can fall out of practice with, or something we grow out of due to both the challenges and the comforts of life.

As we are not naturally born into this life with perseverance, we are not reborn spiritually with it either. When we start following Christ, we are cleansed of sin and spared from condemnation. However, our salvation still needs to flow into the work of sanctification as we live for and walk with Christ daily.

This is why the first and foremost pillar of perseverance in the life of a believer, is God’s presence. If we do not have regular contact with God as our source of power, our fuses burn out. If He is not our source of refreshment, we lose our responsiveness to life’s challenges. Being responsive is being able to remain adaptable yet unshakable in our response to trials and tribulations.

As a lake will run dry when it’s cut off from its source of water, we will also become dry as bone when we are cut off from our source of Living Water. Even more so, when any body of water is cut off from its source, it becomes stagnant and loses its freshness and its fluidity. It loses the ability to nourish and bring refreshment, as it becomes dormant.

In Israel there are two major inland bodies of water. The Sea of Galilee, and the Dead Sea. In the north, the Sea of Galilee is lush and lively, receiving its source of fresh water from – get this – deep underground springs. The Sea of Galilee flows into the well-known Jordan river, into the southern part of the country, where it stops dead into the Dead Sea (pun intended). The Dead Sea, as you might have guessed, doesn’t have anything growing in or around it. It’s dead. And even though it is not shallow, you cannot go deeper from the surface, since its buoyance is so intense that everything simply floats on it. Everything floats by on it, but nothing gets refreshed by it.

The Sea of Galilee is a picture of perseverance flowing from a deeper presence. The Dead Sea is a picture of things that perish when it goes with the flow but loses its ability to dig deeper or give anything anymore.

As followers of Jesus, we are not supposed to settle for an on-surface-only religion that leaves us floating through life as we ourselves become dried up. Neither are we to only get input like a river flowing into us but become a stagnant dam of holy water. Now, instead we are supposed to allow our own refreshment from God to overflow and burst unto the restoration of the world all around us.

If we don’t dig into God’s presence on a regular basis, we lose our depth, we lose our source of life, and we lose our sense of purpose through which we can persevere through the best of times and the worst of times.

God’s presence, opened by Jesus and accessible through His Holy Spirit, is inviting us to meet with Him. It is an invitation to stay fresh and be refreshed. It is an invite to overflow with so much of His love, power, and knowledge that it cannot be contained in us alone.

It is an invitation to persevere with purpose.