2 Peter 1:2-4
But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
It has been a long time, but I can remember some of the games the kids in our neighborhood played. Hide and Seek, Kick the Can, Stick Ball, and many others, until we heard the call from our moms to come in the house. I can never remember our choosing up sides and playing a rousing game of—Perseverance.
I especially like the way Thayer’s Lexicon interprets the word Perseverance: “The characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and suffering.”
That is powerful! It is far too easy to seek an escape from trial and testing instead of inquiring of the Lord as to His purpose in what we are going through. Some seem to feel that Christians should not go through the trials of life. Oh, really?!
Read what the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:24-27: Five times he received 39 lashes, three times he was beaten with rods, once he was stoned, three times he was shipwrecked, and spent a day and a night in the ocean. He describes his life as being filled with suffering and pain. That is true perseverance that leads to godliness. So what is godliness? Reverence, respect and piety toward God. It is saying: Not my will, but Your will be done! I want that kind of life!
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil