Notes
Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
James 1:2-4
Be the one to persevere, to remain standing when others might fall. The testing of our faith helps us develop perseverance. If we are going to live lives of faith with any significant impact, we will have to face difficulty; to change the world, we will have to go through hard times.
Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? 2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.
Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
Philippians 2:1-4
Our lives and our faith are not just about ourselves. When it comes to perseverance and living a life for God and facing trials, the point is to get to a place where we can help hold others up when they are falling. The more we persevere, the stronger our faith grows, and the stronger our faith grows, the more we can impact and help others.
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 He is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘A man is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’ 31 I did not recognize him as the Messiah, but I have been baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel.”
John 1:29-31
John the Baptist didn’t know what the Messiah was going to look like, but he did know that God had called him to a life of calling others back to God. He didn’t need all the answers; he just needed to know what he was supposed to do.
I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.
John 16:33
We don’t always know where our trials are taking us. We don’t know what the next step is, and we don’t have all of the answers. Difficulties remind us that the world is broken and is in need of Jesus. When you’re going through a trial, remember this: God has already won!
In perseverance, we become people of wisdom. We gain a deeper understanding of who God is, and that helps us discern God’s will and what He wants to do. No matter how dark the world gets, we understand that God is always moving. It allows us to cut through the chaos and see Him at work.
Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. 13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:11-13
Through perseverance, we become people of completeness. The Hebrew word “shalom” is often translated as “peace” but it can also mean “wholeness.” When we persevere through trials, then no matter what happens, we can be at peace; we are whole in Christ.
God never brings His people into a storm to let them drown. It’s in the storms that we get the stories of how powerful God is and the truth of how much He loves us. He takes us through storms to help us to the other side so that we have a story to tell the world, so that He can be glorified.
Group Questions
- What does it mean to persevere in your faith?
- When have you seen an example of perseverance in someone else?
- What have you learned, or how have you grown, through the trials you have experienced?
Prayer
Thank you for teaching us to be people of perseverance. When storms come our way, help us use that storm to grow stronger so that we can learn how to hold others up when they are going through their own storms.