Over the last few months I have written about being part of God’s special team, where we let Him lead us through life and where He uses us to work in this world. We have talked about the STEPs of being on His team: Strength, Training and Experience. The final STEP is Perseverance.
There are many examples of perseverance throughout Scripture, but the stories that specifically come to my mind are of Hannah and Ruth. Two women who showed that by continuing with God through persevering in prayer, they were heard, answered and made part of God’s family.
Hannah prayed for years for a child. She was barren and when she would go to the temple with her husband she would cry to God for a child. She made a pledge to God that if her prayer was answered she would give the child to service for Him at the temple.
After years of waiting and trying, her prayer was eventually answered and she bore a child, Samuel. She remembered and kept her pledge. Samuel was given to work at the temple. He was trained there and became a great priest and prophet of God. Her perseverance and continued belief in God was awarded with a son, even when she didn’t initially get what she wanted. Samuel went on to do amazing things for God.
Ruth, was not an Israelite. She was a Moabite woman, not seen as a part of God’s family. But her mother-in-law was an Israelite and when Ruth became widowed at a young age, she was given the choice to remain in her home country or go with her mother-in-law to a foreign land. Ruth didn't hesitate in her decision.
Ruth chose to go to to new land, a land with different traditions and religion than her own. But the God that her mother-in-law worshipped had become a part of Ruth’s life and she wanted to follow. She went to the land of Israel and there she met a young man named Boaz who she eventually married. Through Ruth’s devotion to the God of Israel, the One true God, she became the mother to a boy who was part of the physical lineage of Jesus Christ. Her faith and perseverance in her belief of the true God led her to become part of God’s family and the lineage of Jesus Christ the Messiah.
As Christians, we are called to have perseverance in life, we are called to remain with God and we are called to remain faithful to Him through thick and thin. We are to persevere through the trials of this life and to continue to spread His love to this dying world. We serve a God who is with us no matter what goes on, a God that never leaves us, a God that desires we follow Him more than anything else in all the universe.
There is a wonderful song put to some clips from the Gospel videos. Go to this site and see if it moves you like it moved me. It’s God’s desire that we would follow Him. “I Will Follow Song”
The only thing it takes to be part of God’s team is to accept Him into our lives and let Him live through us. We make it difficult sometimes, but it is really quite simple. God wants to give us the skills and abilities necessary to follow Him. But He won’t force us. It is our choice to follow Him. I pray you make the choice to let Him into your life and forever be part of the ultimate winning team.
