NEVER GIVE UP!!

OUR LORD's LESSON on PERSEVERANCE
by Kimberley Demmitt

I feel Led by Him to share His Lesson about perseverance. In
general, our Lord Reminds us that the Higher the Calling, the
longer & more arduous the preparation time, whereas the Grander
the Promise, the more the tenacity that is required in our
perseverance. *The biggest Blessings will always occur in a
magnitude that is directly proportional to the degree of difficulties
in attaining Them. *So, please,*do not quit  *-- no matter how
long you have waited, how painful it has been, or what mistakes
you may have made along the way.  Trust our Lord's Love enough
to believe that He would never allow any of His Beloved Children
to be cruelly deceived for endless years by a delusion -- no one
who sincerely seeks to know Him or His Will can ever be led
astray.  We must*choose*to be deceived.

The Faith Walk is not for the faint-hearted or the shrinking violets.
One of the mandatory characteristics, which our Lord will develop
through His Character within us, is that of *fierce tenacity in the
face of all adversity.*

The events & characters in the Bible provide priceless analogies,
which our Lord will happily Teach each one of us through the
Agency of the Holy Spirit.  For perseverance, an excellent
illustration is presented in the Book of Genesis (Chapter 32), 
in which Jacob wrestles with the Angel all night long until dawn.
Here is what our Lord Showed me to learn from this chapter:

At the time of this event, Jacob was returning to his homeland for the
first time after 20 years of self-imposed exile... In spite of our Lord's
assurances that He would be with Jacob when He instructed him to
return to his homeland, Jacob did what we all have a tendency to do --
he tried to act in his own power to secure his brother's favor by sending
him a conciliatory message of subservience & an offering of  livestock
& servants. This he did because he was unwilling to relinquish his fear
& trust our Lord to Keep His Word to Protect him -- like us, he wrestled
with the doubts of whether or not he had understood our Lord correctly,
&  he felt helpless unless he tried to do something, himself, to  "help
God out"... just in case God Forgot about him, perhaps. 

However, his conciliatory gesture was met with silence -- & the news
that Esau was approaching to meet him head on with 400 men.
That was not encouraging -- & it sure didn't sound like he was under any
Divine Protection.  If God had Blessed him, then why was Esau coming
against him with 400 men?  Cold terror compounded the years of guilt as
Jacob realized that he had no army with him & could not withstand any
assaults inaugurated by Esau. So, in that long lonely night of isolation,
Jacob felt  himself collapse helplessly to the ground as the crippling
waves of guilt & terror brought him almost to the point of hysteria, & he
feared that our Lord had Abandoned him & Revoked all Blessings
because of his deception & for his failure to totally trust our Lord when
he was assured that the Divine Presence would be with him upon his
return. 

Feeling as though he had thoroughly messed up everything on all counts,
Jacobplunged into the most wretched depths of despair that any human
being can ever experience.

As he cried out to God, he felt a strong hand upon his shoulder. Thus
ensued a grim struggle for mastery without a single word being uttered
between Jacob and the stranger. As dawn approached, the stranger
placed a finger on Jacob's thigh & crippled him instantly, possibly by
dislocating the hip joint.  At that point, Jacob recognized that his
opponent was no ordinary mortal, but an Angel --& that recognition
brought to mind the promises of forgiveness and blessing that our Lord
had given him. So, in spite of the desperate turmoil in his heart and the
agonizing physical pain, Jacob clung to the Angel & refused to let go.

As dawn was arriving, the Angel  commanded Jacob to release him, 
but Jacob groaned, "I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me".
This was not declared in a petulant, arrogant, demanding spirit, but
rather it was the cry from the soul's depths of one who recognized his
errors & God's Mercy, & who was now desperately entreating God for
His Promises, in spite of his own unworthiness.

Even though he was in agony in all levels of his being & maintaining
his grip on the Angel required every ounce of his mortal life force,
Jacob persisted in hanging on & would have done so even if it had
meant dying in the process.  His perseverance was rewarded, for the
Angel symbolically removed the stain of his sin by declaring,*"Thy
name shall be called no more Jacob (the deceiver/supplanter), but
Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and
hast prevailed"* (Genesis 32: 28).

Thus Jacob's long night of personal hell was more than amply Rewarded
-- not only was his original sin against Esau officially removed in the
change of his name to the princely "Israel," but Esau's heart was also
moved by our Lord's loving Spirit to greet his brother with a weeping
embrace instead of combat. Because of Jacob's perseverance throughout
the long struggle, the emotional & physical pain, & his acute awareness
of his own failures and sense of unworthiness, our Lord did far more
than merely honor His Promise to Jacob. By his new name of Israel, he
was forever immortalized by a nation of people that still exists many
centuries later.

The Lesson our Lord Wishes for us to derive from Jacob's account is One
of Perseverance, no matter how dark & despairing things may appear.
We are to cling to our Lord at all costs & let nothing loosen that grip
-- not pain, not failure, not weariness from the length of time spent in
holding on, & not even our own mistakes and sense of unworthiness.
None of us has ever "earned" anything from our Lord -- He Gives to us
because He Loves us & because He Wants to Give Good Things to His
Children, not because of how "good" we are or how "holy," "religious,"
or "perfect" we are. Even if we make errors throughout our long wait, He
will always Honor His Word to us because that is His Love & Grace "In
Action," & He is All Perfection. 

So, if we remember that our Lord is always Faithful to "Come
Through" for us (even if not necessarily on our time-table) & we
emulate the tenacity of Jacob in our perseverance to hang onto
Him until He Blesses us, He will surely justify such faith in the
long run & prove that no one who puts his or her trust in Him
shall ever be ashamed (see *Romans 10:11)-- especially those
of you who have given Him your entire lives for many, many years.