Perseverance: "Steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success"
I was thinking on what to write on next, and when I just said God help me, I felt the word "Perseverance" come to my heart so I decided to look it up and get the full meaning. It's crazy because this is how I see myself, to always pick myself up in spite of certain circumstances that may deter the goals I am trying to achieve. I never stop going because it feels like a race, to get to that level of achievement that I know I have the potential for because God is on my side.
Now don't get me wrong in my human nature there are times I have doubts and days of procrastination, swimming in a pool of laziness because I feel disappointed that I may not be achieving certain things yet. I know there are so many people who feel this way every day and literally have no motivation or inspiration to pick themselves up because they have failed so many times at the things they aspire to achieve. If this is you or someone you know of then I feel this post is for you..
I'll tell you what keeps me going when I feel like I'm losing it. It's not a pep talk from friends or parents. It's my faith in Gods word spoken over my life. Before I started getting comfortable with reading the Bible (still trying to get comfortable trust me) my mom would always pick out Bible scriptures for me to read when I was younger, we called them "promises" and she would fold each scripture in a piece of paper and every month it was a new message. This was what actually led me to start opening my bible out of my own will, not because I was at church and had to or because I was doing it to put up an angelic front but I actually started to get interested in these "promises" that are scriptures in the bible because I felt this was how God spoke to me, and now in my bible I have tons of little paper notes with dates (earliest date I see is 2003) pointing out a message for me. (Shout out to my mom for picking out these messages for me without realising the impact it will have on me now and on others as I share them. You are truly a blessing-Love you!) *Okay back to my point*
I want to share a promise with you all that applies to everyone- Numbers 23:19 "God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken or failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?"
This verse literally moves mountains, just read it again. God never changes his mind! So what does this have to do with you? In life we are created for a purpose and we set goals to achieve certain things but sometimes it doesn't look like our efforts are going anywhere. This is where this verse comes in with my topic of Perseverance. God sees it all, the trials, the hurt, the pain our efforts. Don't give up! Once you have asked for something in His name, just remember He can never fail you. Another verse to back this up is 2:Samuel 22:30 "In your strength I can crush an army, with my God I can scale a wall" metaphorically speaking it means with God you can achieve whatever you dream of!
Be "persevering" and see where it takes you
Stay Inspired& Blessed
xx Zephia xx
p.s follow/subscribe for updates on new posts! :) thanks
Your such a blessing zeph love all your post so much and everytime you come up with a new article its as inspirational as you are. Keep going!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you! This was touching.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad my cheeseballs :)
ReplyDeleteive been trying to get into reading my bible as well...my faith in God has skyrocketed in last couple of months but im still having trouble with picking the right passage and what not? any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteyou beaut...miss you so much even on a different continent you no my heart. couldn't have been a perfect time. miss you, hurry back x
ReplyDeleteI don't read every single one of your posts, but when I do they are just what I need to hear. Thanks dillychuks ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks guys keep reading! :)
ReplyDeleteIbiyemi,
I totally get how you feel. The beginning stages are hard, and it's annoying cause you feel you should just be able to open the Bible and read it easily but sometimes the scriptures are just not gingering you.Lol. Okay heres my advice from experience- Firstly getting comfortable with the Bible is a mind set. I feel we have this preconceived idea that its so boring especially growing up in a country like Nigeria where they used to force us as kids to read it and all that jazz. I just started accepting I actually din't know how to read it properly.
So now before I open it I would pray (Holy Spirit show me the scriptures where you are trying to speak to me and open my mind to understand your word)
you dont have to start from Genesis! I havent even read that, start from the middle or back whatever makes you comfortable.
I started off with reading the book of Romans, because it focuses on the topic of sin-Romans 7 (which is everyones problem) and explains why humans cant help but sin.I think when you read it, you start to understand why you do certain things that are not "Christ-like" examples. Oh and Romans 8-It talks about your new life with God. It's a good read, for people new in their faith. Helps you understand a lot. Just try reading the whole of Romans, thats a good start.
Also when reading there are usually little asterisk marks after something has been said-dont ignore them, some of them are relevant. These marks indicate different scriptures in the bible where a point is made lets say in the new testament and a different scripture in the Old testament Prophesied the same thing. So this helps you explore other passages and you begin to understand how everything in the Bible is linked. Sometimes the asterisks may just be definitions which also helps incase you dont understand what the scripture is saying (So look out for the little footnotes at the bottom of your bible page they are linked to the asterisks-when you see it you will get what I mean)
Alternatively if the first option doesn't work for you, at the back of your Bible depending on the version you have there should be a table of contents with different Bible verses pointing out a story or a topic. Eg: Lets say you wanted to read on Trust just turn to the back and look out for a topic you find interesting and there are different scriptures that focus on that topic, from there you find yourself exploring more and more chapters based on your topic of choice.
Remember dont read the Bible as if its an obligation in which you are "forced" into, It wont work that way, seriously you would just get frustrated and bored out of your mind happens to me. Try reading it as a really interesting book with all these secrets about life. It may take a while, but with time you just get comfortable and drawn to it :)
Praying this helps you!
and feel free to keep asking questions, you can also email me-my address is top of the page right hand corner.
:)
xx
your posts are amazing ! Always puts me in check. Thanks :) keep doing what you are doing
ReplyDelete