Perseverance, a Christian can hardly think of this word without thinking of Job. The other word that immediately brings our thoughts to Job is patience. Both words are similar in that they show self-control by the individual exhibiting them. Job showed both of these in his life. Job was a great example of a person who stayed the course and knew what it meant to “keep on keeping on.”
James 5:11 “Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.”
The word perseverance means steadfastness in doing something, despite the difficulty or delay in achieving success. James weaves this thought in and out all through his book. In chapter 1 we learn we cannot persevere unless there are trials in our lives. Every mountain has a valley and all victories come from a battle. If you want the blessings of God you must prepare to carry the burden and fight the battle. God balances privileges with responsibilities, and blessings with burdens. Without the balance, we would be like the child that always gets its way. We would be very immature and spoiled.
Job shows that his faith is mature. He depends totally on God and remains faithful through adversity and sorrow. In the first three chapters, you have his distress. He loses his wealth, his family (except his wife who advises him to commit suicide), and his health. Anyone of these would cause most Christians to spiral into a pity party, resulting in a heart of bitterness. Job does not respond that way. He defends God when his three friends and his family tell him to curse God and die. We need to keep in mind that Job did not know about the conversation between God and Satan. He was not aware of why he was suffering so much. We can learn a lot of lessons from Job. One, he had shown his righteousness long before he went through his trials. We know that, because when Satan challenged God about Job, God stated in Job 1:8 that there was none like him. We need to get prepared, strong in the Lord, selfless instead of selfish. Trials are going to come.
Why was Job tested so much? God was revealing Himself full of pity and tender mercy. Suffering for God is never wasted. Job met and experienced God in a new and deeper way. Usually, we don’t understand the purpose, but rest assured if we trust God and endure with patience we will always grow spiritually. We must endure the situation knowing that God is working on our behalf. Some things we may never understand but we trust him anyway. No love is ever greater than that of our Savior, no suffering is greater than what our Savior endured. We will experience nothing he has not experienced. In America, there are support groups for everything under the sun. When we experience something we always want to talk to someone who understands. Guess what? We have a Savior that understands all and is able to comfort through the worst of situations. Not only can he comfort us we can find comfort in examples in His word of others who have faced similar situations.
Don’t get ahead of God. Many did and they paid the price. Think of Abraham and his desire to have a child. God had promised he would have children with Sarah, but he took it upon himself because he was impatient and fathered Ishmael. Bad idea! Peter was almost a murderer in the garden. Moses disobeyed and was denied entrance into the promised land. All of these men suffered because they took it upon themselves to get ahead of God.
We are encouraged in Hebrews to hold fast because we have a High Priest that understands and is always there for us.
Hebrews 4:14-15 “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
We are not pawns caught up in the jaws of fate, we are children of a loving God, the Most High God, and privileged to be a part of His wonderful plan! We have a choice, give up and quit, or keep pressing on until he comes or until we die.
