Copyright © 2006 by The Voice of Prophecy

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JESUS' TOP TEN WORDS OF ADVICE #4

GETTING A KICK OUT OF PERSISTENCE

Burn out. It happens. It happens in the spiritual life. People give up on church. People give up on God.

A lot of people just get tired of hoeing weeds. That's what the Christian life becomes for them---just digging up weeds. Sin is always springing up here and there. You have to keep hacking away at it. But you can never really get it all. The dark, fertile soil of human nature is always threatening, always sprouting dandelions. Unfortunately, that's the picture of religious goodness that sticks with a lot of people.

Well, the New Testament takes very seriously our human tendency to grow weary in the “good fight of faith.” One of the things it urges us to do over and over is this: persist patiently, endure, persevere, stand firm. It spotlights these qualities more than seventy times. That's why "persist patiently" is one of its Top Ten words of advice.

The author of Hebrews frequently reminds his readers of the need to persevere in order to receive what is promised. Paul urges the Thessalonians to “never tire of doing what is right,” and the Romans to remember “persistence in doing good.” James writes that “Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete.”

But the question is, of course, how are we to fulfill these essential New Testament precepts? How do we do it without burning out on being good? Is there an alternative to a lifetime of hoeing weeds?

I believe the author of Hebrews gives us a wonderful answer. Here it is: “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith . . . ” (Hebrews 12:1-2, NIV). This passage tells us we can run with perseverance when we run with our eyes fixed on Jesus. But here’s the key: this fixed gaze isn’t just a grim determination to follow the example of the Perfect Master. It’s about having an object of inspiration. It’s about having something to express. That’s what Paul was after when he prayed that believers would be given a “Spirit of wisdom and revelation.” (Ephesians 1:17, NIV). He longed that the eyes of their heart be enlightened so they could grasp the “glorious inheritance” and the “incomparably great power” and the “fullness” of Jesus Christ.

The good kind of persistence is about having something to express. Think about artists for example, great painters. Now why do they often endure years of privation and loneliness as they work away on that masterpiece?

What drives Claude Monet to keep doing canvases of the same old water lilies? What drives Vincent Van Gogh to keep painting those same wheat fields?

Well, they have found something they want to express, something achingly beautiful, something strikingly true, and they've just got to get it down on canvas.

Guess what? You will find tremendous energy for your spiritual life when you look at Jesus—with the eyes of an artist. Don’t just paint by the numbers. Don’t just see a list of duties you have to try to reproduce. Look at his life in the Word until you find something you can personally admire, something beautiful and true that strikes you. And then find some way to express it in your life. That's how you can persist with joy. That's how you can get a kick out of persistence.

OK, imagine two painters standing side by side in a field. Both are using brushes. Both are covering a surface with paint. The arms of both get tired.

Fred, however, is covering a wall with whitewash. He's paid by the hour.

Bill is staring off at a willow drooping over a pond. He’s trying to capture something in this landscape on a canvas.

Both painters are going through very similar motions. But they’re in two completely different worlds. Fred is glancing at his watch, waiting for the next coffee break. The afternoon drags on.
Bill is caught up in his task; the only thing that can drive him away is darkness.
Finding something to admire, finding something to express--that's what gives your spiritual life legs for the long run.

We run best by fixing the eyes of our hearts on Jesus. We run best when we have something we want to say about God. If you don’t have that momentum, guess what your life will center around? Sin. Yes, sin. It’s not that you’re indulging all the time. It’s that you’re pointing it out, glaring at it, shaking a finger at it, trying to shun it. You start identifying yourself by what you avoid: I don’t do this; I don't do that. Sin remains the center of attention.

If you don’t have something great you want to express about God, you’ll always fall back on hoeing weeds. It’s not “persistence in doing good” that burns people out. It’s the religion of avoidance. Always having to be on guard, always having to say no, that's just too hard.
Jesus once said the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went out and sold all he had and bought that field.

Now here we have a man getting rid of all his worldly possessions. Why? In order to avoid the love of money? In order to make a big sacrifice? No, he wanted to get hold of this hidden treasure. It was worth selling out for. In his joy he went out and sold all he had.

We run with perseverance joyfully when we’re in hot pursuit. We successfully get rid of the bad by pursuing something better. We’re running after love, peace, and grace, so we get rid of stuff that gets in the way. We “throw off” the sin “that so easily entangles” by fixing our gaze on the “author and perfecter of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:1-2, NIV).

So don’t just flail against your bad temper. Aim at being more malleable. Express something about the God who shows patience toward the worst of sinners.

Don’t just stare down lust. Seek to develop sensitivity. Express the way Jesus touched people’s hearts with surgical precision.

Don’t just stamp out resentment. Pursue compassion. Say something about the way God reaches out to those who wrong Him.

Don’t just fight depression. Practice thankfulness. Talk about the blessings that are still disguised as mishaps.

You know friends, every step in this good race is tied to something profound. Every righteous act is like a dab of paint on a great canvas; it adds to the glory of God; it fills out the picture.
Our Heavenly Father doesn’t want our religion to shrink into a matter of putting square pegs in square holes. He wants to expand our lives with his positive qualities. “Fill your minds,” he says, “with whatever is true, whatever is noble . . . whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8, NIV)

Goodness isn’t a matter of cutting life down to proper size; it’s a matter of “growing into the whole measure of all the fullness of Christ.” It’s about creating something beautiful for God. So start looking with the eyes of an artist. Start looking for things to admire, things you want to express. Inspiration is out there in the most unexpected places.

An acquaintance of mine told me about a time in his life when he was having a hard time with church. Sammy was burning out on it. And one day he found himself slouched in a back pew, wondering, as usual, why worship services had to be so boring. That feeble organ music. These old people whining out the hymns. It just left him cold.

Sammy noticed one row of elderly women in particular. They were all sitting down one side of the center aisle, one behind the other. Yea, Sammy thought to himself, probably so they can all slip out to the lobby afterward and start gossiping.

There was also a blind man sitting alone near the front of the church. In the silence after the final hymn, he lingered. No one had sat in his pew. Sammy thought there was someone as isolated as he felt.
The man rose from his pew, fumbled for a huge book, thick with Braille, and slipped it under his arm. He was a stocky gentleman and he moved rather clumsily. Turning uncertainly, he began to make his way toward the rear of the sanctuary.

Immediately the old woman just behind him reached out and clasped his hands tightly. They exchanged a few animated words. He stepped forward and the next woman at the aisle reached for his hands in greeting, and then the next. Each woman beamed as she said his name and expressed how happy she was to see him.

Sammy realized that, in this way, the women had formed a kind of escort, passing him from hand to hand, guiding his steps to the foyer. But he wasn’t just led along like some lost child. He was carried along like a celebrity by all these happy greetings. As the man came closer, Sammy couldn't take his eyes off his face. Around those sunken, glazed eyes, his features shouted joy.
Deeply moved, Sammy realized that these women had shown him what God is like. They had something to say, something wonderful to express about the God who leads us with “cords of human kindness” and “with ties of love.” They were a wonderful tag-team, still running strong in the race.