Are you finding this season hard?
Do you feel tired?
As I was meditating on this recently, God showed me the reason why this season is feeling extra hard for me.
He is growing perseverance is me and I believe many of us. And that is not a new story I know; we know this is an ongoing process!
Interestingly, though, I saw that in this particular season, there are four types of perseverance that I am being stretched in and I believe many of us are too. Knowing what type of perseverance God is growing in you helps you lean into it and yield which can speed up the learning! Also, understanding what God is growing in you, helps you understand what is coming and what He is preparing you for.
For me, understanding this, firstly made me think, ‘no wonder, it feels hard!’ Then, the awareness helped me feel more peace and excitement for what God is doing and what it means for what He has planned next!
Have you heard this well known wisdom; it’s insane to keep doing the same thing and expect different results? Hmmmm, guilty! I know I do that! Quite often, we persevere in doing the same thing we are used to doing, comfortable doing, thinking all along, we are somehow heroic, but what is needed is a different approach, different skills, and a different attitude.
God is always growing us. It’s like it’s His passion! So why not, let’s grow our awareness of the specific areas that we are being stretched and grown in, to help us to lean into these areas and learn quicker. We can coach ourselves through making the mindset shifts we need.
FOUR DIFFERENT TYPES OF PERSEVERANCE
There is perseverance of mind, heart and spirit that God develops in us,
Here are four types of perseverance that many of us are being stretched into right now.
Which ones are being grown in you?
Intellectual Perseverance
Sometimes we need to intellectually stretch and push in to find new ways, new solutions, new strategy, because old strategy maybe out of date or just plain not the right one! When intellectual perseverance is being grown in us, it’s hard because we are having to learn new things, new skills and new ways of thinking. This could be via new training, new relationships, new jobs, or new situations of some kind. All of a sudden, we need to stretch our brain and sometimes for a prolonged period of time, which requires intellectual perseverance.
In what ways is your intellectual perseverance, endurance being grown right now?
Emotional Perseverance
Sometimes we need to work on our emotional perseverance learning to manage our emotions to a new level, not allowing negative feelings, sadness, anger, disappointment, regret, low self-esteem, or any other negative emotions win. We have to overcome so that these feelings don’t shift us to the point that we believe these feelings are reality or truth. If we give in to negative feelings, we convince ourselves that there is no hope and that things can’t change. Once we believe our negative emotions, perseverance becomes very difficult.
We can know whether we have worked on our emotional perseverance because we will have learned to self-manage our thought life and to free up our thinking. We will be experiencing a sense of freedom, contentment, and happiness. If there are past hurts that have not been dealt with, or current thinking that is negative not positive, more work needs to be done here!
In what ways is your emotional perseverance, endurance being grown right now?
Practical Perseverance
James said – Faith without works is dead (James 2:26)
I’m learning that unless we put our money where our mouth is, unless we walk the walk, we are not persevering. Most take the comfortable path, finding a path that feels comfortable, familiar, secure and stable. Maybe continuing to just use skills that have been honed over time, staying within environments they have learned to do well in. Having big audacious, crazy goals is a lifestyle we are called to live as children of a supernatural God. It’s how we grow our faith.
To stop practically taking steps towards these big audacious, crazy goals, is to give up. To not even start is to give up before we have even started! Perseverance is to start and keep going, to never stop until you reach your goal. If you are in action, you are in action. If you are not, you are not! Nuff said!
What is the opportunity right now, for your practical perseverance and endurance to be grown?
Spiritual Perseverance
Finally, spiritual perseverance, which I feel directly links and feeds into our emotional, intellectual, and practical perseverance. Just using a ‘mind over matter’ approach to negative feelings gives us some success and for many ultimate success, but our spirits need God.
God brings a whole new dimension to our journey. He created us; He is invested in us 100%. He wants more than anything to partner with us. Spiritual perseverance is about always persisting to lean into Him. It’s about working on that relationship. It’s about learning His ways, His character. It’s about giving and receiving in our relationship with Him. It’s about persisting in talking to Him. Receiving, listening, growing into Him.
We know the disciplines that bring us closer to His presence; reading the Bible, communion, etc, but above all these things, relationship that is two way is the goal. Simply going to church and practicing spiritual disciplines doesn’t necessarily do this. Meditating on Him, with Him. Growing our beliefs and our experience of Him and never relenting in this is true ‘spiritual perseverance’.
What is the opportunity right now, for your spiritual perseverance and endurance to be grown?
In this season, which of these is God growing in you and how?
Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. Hebrews 10:36