Stick To It

Consider a time you felt stuck. What words describe your experience?

Now consider a time you "stuck" to something. What words describe your experience?

There's quite a difference between being stuck and sticking to something. Even when we stick to something, we can get stuck in stubbornness or stick to perseverance.

We also have joy with our troubles, because we know that these troubles produce patience. And patience produces character, and character produces hope. And this hope will never disappoint us, because God has poured out his love to fill our hearts. He gave us his love through the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to us. - Romans 5:3-5 (NCV)

What we need to stick to is not a place or situation. We should stick to perseverance itself. Perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. The situation in these verses involves troubles. Our perseverance isn’t about sticking to the situation causing our troubles. Our perseverance focuses on what will take a through our troubles and other situations. We stick to perseverance because it’s perseverance which leads to hope, which according to the Bible, doesn’t disappoint us because of who God is!

Of course, we don’t know how long our troubles will last. Perhaps a brief time, perhaps a lifetime. But when we stick our feet into the sinking sand of our troubles, we’re definitely not going anywhere. When we set our sights on perseverance, we develop character and the hope. And hope carries us through our trials as we grow in our relationship with God. We cannot mature without perseverance. Ouch! So, if we’re not persevering, we’re not growing; we’re staying childish. God has a plan and purpose for each of us, but we can only fulfill that purpose if we're growing, which means persevering through troubles and struggles! If we refuse to grow up, we can’t begin to accomplish what God has planned for us.

You can sit in the middle of our troubles, look ahead and painfully wonder what it would be like if your life was different. Or, you can look ahead with hope and then move your feet, one step at a time, according to God’s direction and timing.

When you’re taking one step at a time according to his will, you’ll often find yourself in a different place, closer to God, and can glance back and celebrate the triumphs of persevering through trials!