Week 4: Perseverance

by Hannah Gallant

Do hard things for Jesus.

That’s a phrase my best friend picked up while she was preparing for a triathlon. I loved how quick she was to accept challenges that would teach her to persevere. I loved how she knew that her commitment to doing hard things for Jesus was an act of self-sacrifice. She was willing to train physically, but in her commitment to doing hard things for Jesus, she really meant that she was willing to train spiritually. 

She knew that choosing to do hard things for Jesus was about more than just that triathlon. After all, it was a low stakes, weekly summer camp sprint triathlon with a cheap medal and a free ice cream as a prize for first place. And she only started training one week before. 

"Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life." Revelation 2:10

Of course it wasn’t about the triathlon. It was about the race of life. It was about setting her eyes on the real prize, which is much farther away than the end of a sprint triathlon. And our training and perseverance in the little things—daily tasks at work, home, and school, learning to manage our time, preparing for a 5K Boba Run—are what help train us for the longest race each of us will run.

“Christian life is more than many take it to be. It does not consist wholly in gentleness, patience, meekness, and kindliness. These graces are essential; but there is need also of courage, force, energy, and perseverance. The path that Christ marks out is a narrow, self-denying path. To enter that path and press on through difficulties and discouragements requires men who are more than weaklings.” The Ministry of Healing, p. 497

​We aren’t saved by our good works or our own drive to push through life—we are saved by faith in Jesus’ sin-cleansing sacrifice. But that doesn’t give us permission to live lackluster lives for Christ. 

We must choose the path of training that requires great effort, even though that path may come with much suffering and pain. Jesus knew that if He suffered on this earth, then His followers would suffer too. But He also promised us the Holy Spirit, One who would help us to endure the bitterest trials of our lives, just as He persevered through the most awful trial that led Him unto His death. 

But we aren’t training for death. We’re training for eternal life.
​