3 Compelling Reasons God Works Perseverance in Us
There is a collect in which we pray, “Preserve the works of your mercy, that your Church throughout the world may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your Name.” It speaks to the essence of the work of God’s mercy. We’re here not because we deserve it. We’re here, because out of God’s great goodness, He chooses to call us to himself in great love, pour out upon us the forgiveness we do not deserve and give us a place for eternity in heaven, for which, without his work, we would not be fit.
- To Proclaim His Kingdom
In other words, the collect is asking God to give us the objects of His mercy and what we need to persevere, which means: Don’t give up. Don’t say, “Christianity, I guess, is for other people; it’s not for me.” To use the biblical language, we are not to “put [our] hand to the plow and look back” (Luke 9:62).
And why should we persevere? That we might be available for God to use us in the confession of His name.
In essence, there is a missionary purpose for our persistence. It has very little to do with God somehow keeping us so we’ll make it to heaven but with God working in us to use for the proclamation of his kingdom. In other words, God is working within me the grace I need to persevere so I might continue to be useful in his purposes.
Persevering, then, is not just for my own good (although it is that). Instead, it is so God can work through me in the lives of others. The heart of perseverance is not just about saying no to sin. It’s also about saying yes and looking for the opportunities God puts in our way. And those can come up in the most unlikely places.
- To Cleave to Him Above Other Loyalties
Surprisingly enough, a Scripture passage about division also has to do with perseverance. Here’s Jesus at his most impassioned: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed. Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No!” (Luke 12:49-51b). And he lays it out: father against son, son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
Do you see the connection to perseverance? Jesus is describing what he’s about to endure, using the analogies of fire and of baptism. Fire to do with the burning away of dross—like the clearing of a path. Christ is moving forward, and something powerful, cataclysmic, history-changing is about to happen, and nothing will stand in its way. Baptism has to do with going under the water, death to sin and a new life.
Is Jesus doing this because he needs to die to sin? No! Instead, he is choosing to come under the waters of God’s judgment on our behalf: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).
And the end result? God works in us something that causes us to cleave to him above all other loyalties. He moves to make us wholly and completely his own, so a part of the work of perseverance is cutting away other loyalties. He works in us a kind of single-mindedness that literally lays aside any partisanship except to Christ himself.
- To Let Our Yes Be Yes
Perseverance sees and finds ways to say yes—with God’s help—when the fork in the road comes. In fact, I would say that’s probably the best analogy for perseverance. Because again and again, we come to these forks in the road. Which is more important: our own financial well-being or persevering in the gospel? Us getting our own way or being available for his way? Us not wanting to cause trouble or getting into trouble because of our greater loyalty to Christ?
You’ve heard the quote: “Nothing worth doing has ever been accomplished without solitude.” We need the willingness to prepare, to ask God to give us the capacity to see our world as he sees it. Yes, we must make the time in quiet before God, before his Word, in his presence, so we can walk with the kind of clarity and purpose that allows us to see clearly. In this we, we understand how to let our yes be yes and our no be no.
So in the midst of this extremely partisan season in which we find our country, can we find a way to live in the place of highest loyalty, of partisanship, of unity? Lord, let it be so.
How has partisanship hurt the church? How can perseverance help? Share this blog and your response on Twitter. Please include my username, @revgregbrewer.
(This post is an adaption of Bishop Brewer’s sermon on October 20, 2016, in the Bishop’s Oratory, Orlando.)
Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.