P is for Perseverance
Hi, I realized after I filmed the video, that the Leper story I talk about is actually found in Luke 17:11-19. There’s more than one story about Leprosy in the Bible. I realized I got the one I was talking about mixed up with another story that is found in Matthew. I did not know I was going to talk about it, it just came out and was fitting, so I rolled with it. That happens. I write a script to give myself a guideline, and then once I’m on camera, I add as I go. I hope you can tell that I’m speaking from my heart and that you get the message of the video. What do you think of the series? Does anyone have any questions? I’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave a comment below and click on “I am not a robot.” God Bless. Rachael
Hi everyone, and welcome to week 16 of The ABC’s of Contentment. Today’s letter is P and P stands for Perseverance. It’s another one of those weeks when we’re actually going to focus on two words: Perseverance and Run because it takes Perseverance to Run a race; especially the kind of race the Bible talks about. So that means we’ll have two verses again just like we did for Masterpiece and Potter. So the first verse is Hebrews 12:1 and 2, where it says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles, and 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, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” The second verse is another favorite of mine. It’s Romans 5:3-5. It says, “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces character; character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.” A good example of this is in the movie Overcomer, the new one by Stephen and Alex Kendrick. The plot is a man who’s been coaching basketball for a long time at a high school finds out that he cannot coach basketball because most of his key players are moving due to a factory plant shutting down. So now what? What does he do with himself? When the principal asks him to coach cross country, his response at first is, “Cross country is not even a real sport.” Boy, does he have a lot to learn! Throughout the movie, the coach works on his attitude as he learns many lessons about Perseverance. When he sees that the one runner on his team has asthma, he learns lessons about Perseverance. When he sees her run, she doesn’t let anything stop her. It’s such a good movie! When I post the video on YouTube, in the description I’m going to leave a link that says where the movie is playing so you can plug in your zip code to find out if it’s playing in your area. If it is, I suggest that you go see it. My mom and I saw it twice. It’s that good. So anyway, I’ve seen this so many times in my own life. People have come up to me and told me how I have Perseverance. They see Perseverance in me because I have to have Perseverance. If I didn’t have Perseverance, I could get really bitter. It’s easy to get bitter when we need help with the small things; like getting dressed, combing your hair, you get the idea. I constantly have to keep my eyes focused on Jesus. Though I can’t run physically, actually, I think that helps me run the race the Bible talks about and keep my eyes focused on eternal things that matter to God. Think about it; when you look back at the Bible, and you hear stories about healing, how many of those people really went back to thank Him? Not very many. In fact, you know the story where Jesus heals so many lepers? It’s found in Luke (17:11-19). He healed 10 lepers and out of 10, only one went back to thank Him. But isn’t that typical of our culture? As soon as we get the miracle we’re hoping for, in this case I mean physical healing, we’re like, “See ya God. I don’t need you anymore.” So sometimes when He doesn’t heal you the way you would like (like in my case, the surgery I described earlier when we talked about the letter E for Embrace), I think it’s because He knows what we’re going be like if we get healed. God is all-knowing and remember the verse we looked at when we talked about the letter F (Jeremiah 1:5)? It says, “Before I formed you I knew you.” So knowing that God is all-knowing, if He doesn’t heal, it means He’s got a plan and that He wants to use us in a unique way. I cannot stress enough how many opportunities I’ve had to minister in my wheelchair that wouldn’t have happened if I weren’t in my wheelchair. For those opportunities, I have to thank the Lord. Lord thank you for the things I can’t do physically. Help me to always keep my eyes focused on you so that I may run the race, get home to heaven someday and hear you say, “Welcome home my good and faithful servant, well done.” Amen. And now for today’s song. Today’s song is by a good friend of mine, Jana Alarya. In fact, you see that my shirt says “Shine?” That’s one of her shirts. I got it one year when I went to The Joni and Friends Family Retreat and she was there. So the song is called “Fight This Fight”. Here we go. It goes perfect with the word Perseverance.
“I will fight this fight
I will run this race
I will serve You, Lord in all I do
‘Til I see Your face
I will fight this fight
I will run this race
I will serve You, Lord in all I do
‘Til I see Your face
I see the cross before me
So I’ll keep on pressin’ on
God is callin’ so I won’t look back
His word is keepin’ me on the track
To Jesus (echo)
To Jesus (echo)
I will fight this fight
I will run this race
I will serve You, Lord in all I do
‘Til I see Your face
I see the cross before me
So I keep on pressin’ on
God is callin’ so I won’t look back
His word is keepin’ me on the track
To Jesus (echo)
To Jesus (echo)
I see the cross before me
So I keep on pressin’ on
God is callin’ so I won’t look back
His word is keepin’ me on the track
To Jesus (echo)
To Jesus (echo)
I will fight this fight
I will run this race
I will serve You, Lord in all I do
‘Til I see Your face
I will fight this fight
I will run this race
I will serve You, Lord in all I do
‘Til I see Your face”
Amen. Will you run the race and get the prize? The Eternal prize? That crown of rewards the Bible talks about? I sure hope so. You know, if you don’t know Jesus, and you haven’t started a relationship with Him, go back on my YouTube channel and look at the letter H for Healing. In the description there’s a prayer that I lead you in to start a relationship with Jesus. It’s really worth it. It’s because I have Jesus in my life that I’m able to Persevere. Because of Jesus, I have hope. Without Him you would not see the energy that you just saw. Well that’s it everyone and I’ll see you next week when we talk about the letter Q and Q will be for Quick. Bye everyone, God Bless.
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