Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Perseverance”
Our Bible verse for today: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “God rewards perseverance.”
I read an interesting statement the other night which was written by the great Christian theologian Saint Augustine more than 1500 years ago, “Without God, we cannot, and without us, He will not.”
What Augustine meant is that God chooses to work in partnership with His people. Although He is all-powerful and therefore can do anything He wants, anytime He wants, in any way He wants, and He doesn’t need us in order to accomplish it, He chooses to work with and in and through us anyway. For the most part, that’s how things happen in the kingdom of God, we cooperate with God and He then works in and through us.
That being the case, we as Christians are completely and totally dependant on Him but at the same time, we also have a responsibility to do our parts in achieving God’s intended results. Even though God could accomplish it without us, He probably won’t unless we cooperate and do our part.
And that brings us to the importance of the spiritual discipline of perseverance. God wants us to face our difficult circumstances with faith, determination, endurance, and to keep trying. He will help us, and He will work with us as we move forward in our efforts to deal with the situation, but this is not a free ride and the burden is not all on Him. We must lean into the situation and keep moving forward, day-by-day and step-by-step. If we do, in time the results will come. That was Paul’s point in Galatians 6:9.
As we conclude this month of devotional thoughts about the spiritual discipline of perseverance I want to encourage you to hang in there. Nothing is over until you give up. As long as you don’t quit the chance for success still exists. But once you quit, the game is indeed over.
Galatians 6:9 is a promise you can claim and cling to. That’s the reason God had Paul give it to us. He wants us to persevere, and in His way and in His timing, He will reward us with His desired outcome if we will.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 