Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Patience”
Our Bible verse for today: “A man who endures trials is blessed, because when he passes the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.” James 1:12 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Patience and perseverance are the keys to success.”
We live in a ready-made, microwave world where we’ve come to expect everything to be fast and easy. We want what we want, we want it now, and we don’t want to have to expend too much effort or energy to get it. And what if we don’t get it fast and easy and without too much effort? We give up on that goal and move on to something new.
Of course, that’s not true of everyone. It’s probably not even true of the majority of people, but it is an increasing trend in our society. More and more we’re becoming accustomed to having things made easy for us. And so we tend to have less patience with things that are not easy and we’re less likely to persevere in the accomplishment of hard things.
But almost anything worthwhile does take time and effort. The accomplishment of any worthy objective requires a goal, a plan to achieve that goal, and the commitment to walk it out until you achieve it. Frequently the thing that deters and discourages us from sticking with it is that the ultimate end seems so far away and so hard to get to. The college degree is four years and hundreds of hours of studying down the road. The twenty pounds we need to drop is going to take many months of dieting and exercising. Getting those bills paid off will take a couple of years of sacrifice and financial discipline.
The ultimate achievement of our goal seems far away and hard to get to. And so, we give up.
The key of course, is to focus instead on the achievement of smaller, immediate goals which, when strung together, will get you to your long range goal. So just focus your attention on completing the class you’re currently enrolled in. Then once that one is done, shift your focus to the next one. Eventually, when enough classes are completed like that, you’ll be a college graduate. Never mind about the twenty pounds, just focus on losing the next one, and then the one after that, and then the one after that.
Patience, combined with perseverance, together create a path that leads us to where we need to go. Patience and perseverance are also Biblical themes that God hammers home time and time again, verse after verse, writer after writer, book after book. Why? Because He wants us to have patience and to persevere. He wants us to hang in there and to not give up. He wants us to set good and worthy goals and then walk them out to ultimate achievement and success.
Patience and perseverance are the keys to success in life.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 