"Perseverance"

 "For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." (Hebrews 10:36 KJV)

  "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT)

 There are many different ways that we can serve the Lord; some have certain challenges with dealing in and with others that have difficulty keeping it together; others involve services which might not receive much recognition. Which other way that we serve, it is the Lord who we serve, through other people; He is who we must serve, and He is who we can always trust!

  If you don't understand what that means, or how it works, there is a very simple way to figure it out: People can sometimes be difficult to deal with, and we should never serve to gain any rewards from anyone else; everything we do, we do to please the Lord; He alone is the faithful one and the one that is our judge of everything we do, or fail to do. 

 Thinking about this is sometimes hard to make happen, mostly because we have this little thing call pride and the ability to feel hurt. But if we keep our eyes on Jesus, knowing and believing that He is always with us, then, and only then, can we really love, as we are loved by Him! It is always not achievable and there will always be times when we fall short; but that is what it means to have perseverance; we never give up trying to get it right...

"Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me completely. Three things will last forever - faith, hope, and love - and the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:8-13 NLT)