Ready, Steady, GrowSample

Perseverance, Continued

Starting and finishing well.

Think of a long distance marathon where everyone who finishes is awarded with medals. There are usually the top three winners who get a medal and perhaps a cash prize, but everyone who finishes the race gets a medal, a token to say you made it to the end. Runners who do not finish do not get a medal regardless of if they dropped out in the first five minutes or in the last five minutes. In the same way, we as Christians are rewarded for our own race, the Bible tells us that God will say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant”. Here on earth the rewards are endless- joy, peace beyond our understanding, even material rewards; and when our physical lives come to an end, we get eternal life in the presence of God.

So how is this achieved? We cannot go all the way or even a long way without knowing God and holding onto Him. We must go one step further: from just believing in God, to knowing His character and being convinced in our hearts that He is faithful. This is done through spending time with God in prayer, worship, studying the Bible, and fellowship with other believers. Additionally, as we grow in our Christian journey, we start to accumulate memories of events or times in our lives when God came through for us.

Combined with the testimonies of other believers and reading about the heroes of faith in the Bible, we start to build our own impression of who God is. we begin to know deep in our hearts that because He has been trustworthy in the past, He can be trusted now. This knowledge enables us to believe His promises for the future and wait patiently for them to happen even when we face hard times.

Ask yourself, what is one thing I need to do today in order to persevere? Then, take it one step further and do it. Start a daily Bible devotional, join a prayer group, attend and serve in church, spend time alone in prayer with God. Invite Him on the journey and let your faith be completely transformed.