PERSEVERANCE

Now that you have taken the reins of your life, planned out your week to accomplish God’s will in your life, Peter tells us to Persevere in it. We are to persevere in it because Satan and man are going to do their best to thwart us from doing God’s will. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:8-10,

"Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you."

If you think Satan is going to sit back and say, "Gee! It is really great to see you have your life together and are steadfastly walking in God’s will for your life!", your deceiving yourself. The more diligently you pursue God’s will the more vicious Satan is going to attack you and try to thwart you in it.

Satan attacks us through two primary means: external harassment and through direct demonic attack. When you begin to walk in Jesus’ will for your life, you will find not only are you attacked by the world, but you will be surprised when it comes from some of your closest associates. When Jesus, in obedience to the Father, got ready to go to Jerusalem to die on the cross, it was one of his apostles, Peter, who tried to prevent him. Paul in Philippians shares how some Christians preached the Gospel not because they cared about the souls of men but "out of selfish ambition, rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment" (Phil 1:17). Satan will also attack you in your finances to try and prevent you from succeeding in what Jesus has called you to do.

All of these represent external means of attempted discouragement. that is the way Satan always comes at us at first: through external means. But when all his external devices fail he then goes to the next stage: direct Satanic attack. When I did the first draft of my Advanced Textbook on Evangelism years ago, the Lord came to me in my spirit and said, "Satan is going to try and destroy the book. You need to get as many of your friends as possible praying for you." I thought to myself, "Right Lord! Satan has not been trying to do that for the last two years?" I had been working on the book that long to that point. But if God says something like that it must be pretty serious so I realized I had better heed His advice. I called and wrote everyone I knew and asked them to pray for me and this project.

About four days after this warning it started: direct Satanic attack. It happened while I was working. I was a file clerk at a bank at the time and it started while I was in the back filing. Wave after wave of attack. Their affect on me was overwhelming discouragement and despair. But just at the point that I would be ready to give up I would get this inward surge of Holy Spirit strength and I was able to continue on. I realized this surge of strength’s source was the prayers of my friends. Finally, a year and a half later I finished the first draft of the Advanced Textbook. Since that time twenty years ago, I have written several other books. I have also had the privilege of training many brothers and sisters in Evangelism through using this material and have been blessed in seeing the fruit of my labor.

Paul writes in Galatians 6:9, "Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary." And again in 1 Corinthians 15:58,

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord."

And Peter said in our original passage,

"And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you."

As we persevere in God’s will and calling in our lives He promises that we will reap fruit from our labors and that He Himself will see that we are established in it. As we focus on obedience to God, and let Him worry about what the devil is doing, we are guaranteed success for "Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4).

As we persevere in God’s will we begin to understand the meaning of Godliness, the next quality Peter mentions. To be godly is to be meek. To be meek simply means to not speak or act except out of God’s initiative through the Holy Spirit. Jesus said about His call and ministry in John 5:19,

"Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner."

In John 12:48-50 Jesus said about Himself,

"He who rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me."⁸⁷

Jesus tells us in these passages that he neither spoke nor did anything unless He saw the Father doing it first. About our own personal lives and calling, Jesus commands us to do the same. He tells us in John 20:21, "Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you." Jesus tells us in this passage, I did not speak or act out of my own initiative but only out of the Father’s initiative through the Holy Spirit, and I want you to do the same.

As we persevere in God’s will, concerning the other areas of our lives that concern us, he tells us to wait for His clear counsel and direction in it. Psalm 27:14 states, "Wait for Yehovah; be strong, and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for Yehovah." Jesus promises us in John 14:18, "I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." That simply means He will not be late with the answers we need about other areas of our lives as we choose to walk in obedience to his dictates of the present. He promises us in John 14:21,

"He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him."

Jesus gives answers to those who obey Him. Jesus says in Matthew 6:33, "But continually seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you." Jesus tells us we are not to seek the world, but His will and His kingdom. As we do, He promises to provide all that we need.

The last qualities Peter states are brotherly kindness and love. The fruit of the Spirit the Bible tells us in Galatians 5:22-23 is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, long-suffering, and self-control. When what we say or do in ministering to others is out of the initiative of the Holy Spirit it is received and ministered in love because the fruit of the Spirit is love. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1:22,

"Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart."

Loving our brothers from the heart means only doing toward them what the Holy Spirit is telling us to do in word, action and deed. But notice in this passage of 1 Peter that Peter tells us true love can only come about through a purified heart of moral- excellence. Without having developed diligence, moral-excellence, true knowledge, self-control, perseverance, and godliness first, one cannot know truly what it means to love his brother. Truly loving your brother from the heart means only doing toward him what the Holy Spirit is telling you to do in word, action, and deed.

Finally, Peter tells us that increasing or lacking these qualities will produce two kinds of fruit. First, for the person who lacks these qualities Peter states that this person is blind and short sighted. He is a person who can only live for now. He is a person who cannot wait for God’s reward in the future. And because of his blindness and short-sightedness he ends up going back into the world and trying to fulfill the desires of his flesh in his own strength, and thus ends up back in his former life-style of sin and forgets the purification of his former sins through the blood of Jesus.

But the person who diligently pursues and develops these qualities has many promises and rewards. First, Peter states that he will not be useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of Jesus. Jesus said in John 14:21,

"He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and He who loves me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to Him."

Jesus will only reveal Himself to the person who submits to the call and discipline He has for that person. To not submit to Jesus’ will and call is to walk in darkness; to be blind and short-sighted.

Second, the person who submits to God’s will and call in his life will live fulfilled and content in who he is and in the certainty of his calling. Third, Peter states he will enter the kingdom of God. When what you are doing is out of God’s initiative you are entering into and living in God’s kingdom. And fourth, Peter states that when we walk in the center of God’s will we are assured of His abundant provision and supply.

To grow as Jesus’ disciple means to grow in the true meaning of love. But you cannot have love unless you first have moral-excellence, and you cannot have moral-excellence without the true knowledge of Jesus. And the true knowledge of Jesus is useless unless one exercises self- control in his life in relation to that knowledge. And you cannot perfect self-control without perseverance. And having all the self-control and perseverance in the world cannot produce love unless accompanied by godliness.

If you find yourself lost and confused about God’s will and direction in your life, pray and ask Him where in these list of Christian virtues you have gotten off the tract or whether you need to start from scratch all together. As you obey Him in this direction and persevere in it you will find God’s peace, God’s call for your life, and true fulfillment in life as Jesus’ Disciple. You will become all that Jesus intended for you to become and you will come home to heaven and hear Jesus say,

"Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master." (Matt 25:21).