Perseverance – 10 Part Online Study
Hold on, don’t let go!
“The greatest challenge in receiving great things from God is holding out for the last half hour.”
A quote from the devotional ‘Streams in the Desert’ by L.B. Cowman.
- It is often in the last stretch of a race that the winner is determined.
- It is how you climb the last few meters that determine if you will summit a mountain.
- It is usually the days and hours just before a breakthrough that are the hardest.
Our world recommends that we should let go when it gets difficult, uncomfortable, and inconvenient. The sad thing is that many of us lose our victory, our breakthrough, our territory gained because we could not hold out for the last “half hour.”
Sometimes it is a good thing to list the things that we are “holding out” for.
Heb 3:14 (Living Bible) promises that:
“If we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as we did when we first became Christians, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.”
What are you holding out for?
“And let us not get tired of doing what is right, for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t get discouraged and give up.” (Gal 6:9 LB)
- When things get difficult, especially when we have been persevering for a while, that is not the time to let go.
- When what you believed would happen, has not happened, that is not the time to let go.
- When you are at the end of your own resources and cannot see a way forward, that is not the time to let go.
Quietly hold fast to the things that cannot fail: truth and righteousness. You are in the last half hour, your breakthrough, your victory, your healing is coming. Hold on, don’t let go. “Run in such a way as to get the prize.” (1 Cor 9:24)
Where the anchors that faith has cast
Are dragging in the gale,
I am quietly holding fast
To the things that cannot fail.
And fierce though the fiends my fight,
And long though the angels hide,
I know that truth and right
Have the universe on their side – Washington Gladden
If you have struggled in persevering, though of giving up your faith, this study is for you. Even though I wrote this study during the COVID pandemic, the principles I have discovered, are still true in my life today. Every season of our lives will bring an area in which we are persevering, life brings many challenges and finding a contentment in these is a struggle.
It is my prayer that your thoughts on persevering will both be challenged and encouraged.
P.S. This is a good study to do on your own, to stimulate meditation on new thoughts and concepts. It is equally good to use in a group setting to facilitate a discussion. xx
10 Part Online Bible Study
When your back is against the wall and you don’t know how to go forward, what does God tell us?
A heart that half trusts God is divided, so let’s evaluate our trust levels.
When God calls us to perseverance, we know there is a purpose, plan and prize.
As you are persevering, here are five strategies that you can embrace in it.
In what areas of our lives do we need to persevere in as a believer?
When we are persevering it is important to watch our thought processes and how we think.
Two ways in which the Holy Spirit helps us when we are persevering on a day to day basis.
In times of uncertainty and waiting, what is to be our response to uncertainty.
How to discipline that mind when it is feeling anxious and overwhelmed.
Two ways to think about God when we are trusting Him in difficult circumstances.
