Pathway #6 • Keep Moving Forward

Pathway 6-Keep moving forward-Joyful Walk series
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Picture in your mind a walk you took that was very hard. Maybe you did not know how long it would take or how it would turn out. At the end, you realized it was so worth it. What made it hard? What made finishing it worth the trouble? Storms of life hit us from all sides. In order to keep moving forward during a difficult journey in life, you need something called perseverance. That is the subject of this blog. Pathway #6 is “Keep Moving Forward.” This is post #7 in our “Joyful Walk” series.

Listen to this post as a podcast from our Pathways to a Joyful Walk Bible Study:

In this series, we have covered what a faith walk is and the different pathways you can take to have a joyful walk with the Lord every day of your life. That leads to a rewarding spiritual life. A joyful walk starts with knowing Jesus Christ. It is enhanced as you bask in the grace of God for you and understand how wonderful your new identity in Christ really is. As in any aspect of life, there are choices to make. We have covered the importance of choosing to actively serve Jesus as your master and trusting in the Holy Spirit in you as a greater power over master sin. Another choice is to pursue godliness to avoid the trap of legalism. And when life gets difficult, you need to keep moving forward.

I asked you earlier to consider a walk you took that was very hard but worth the pain and struggle. The one that comes to mind for me was a 6-hour, 4000-foot uphill hike with my husband in Colorado’s Weminuche Wilderness area. It was cold and drizzly, and my body hurt all the way up. But I was rewarded at the end of that “suffering” with the most gorgeous display of wildflowers I had ever seen in a mountain-peak ringed area called Chicago Basin. I still have that feeling of awe when I think about it. Enduring the hike was so worth it! In order to see that beautiful reward, I had to keep moving forward.

What will keep you moving forward during a difficult journey in life?

We need perseverance to move forward.

As humans, we face all kinds of stress, pressure, and pain in just trying to survive physically, financially, or socially. That stress makes us more susceptible to compromise with sin to avoid the suffering. The Bible teaches us that in order to keep going forward on a joyful walk with Christ, you and I need to have something called perseverance, something the Bible says is good for us.

Perseverance is an important and meaningful word in the Bible. Most of us do not use that word as often as we use the word endurance. Endurance race. Endurance test. Endurance is a good word, but it is not as intentional as perseverance.

Perseverance by definition is holding to a course of action, belief, or purpose without giving way. It refers to active staying power and tenacity to hold up under some long-term burden, not just getting stuck in traffic. It carries the idea of whole life experience. It is the quality that enables you to stand on your feet when facing a storm.

That reminds me of our family’s experience with backpacking. My husband, Ron, conducted a wilderness camping ministry for 20 years. So we have done a lot of backpacking. One time, we were in the White Mountains of New Mexico with another family. Our youngest daughter was 6. As we started to walk out on a ridge between two mountain peaks, I could look out and practically see all of New Mexico. That was awesome! But then, the winds hit us. I am not kidding. It felt like 100 mph winds, probably just 50 mph. And my little girl was about to be blown away off the ridge. So I grabbed her hand and held onto her so she could stay on her feet in the windstorm until we got safely to a place of shelter from the wind. Winds try to blow you down, but you keep standing and moving forward. That is perseverance.

But perseverance is only learned when there is a challenge to our comfort. And who likes that? We develop perseverance through experience not through head knowledge. Perseverance is part of the Christian’s faith walk, and there is a reward at the end for having it.

God’s method of teaching us perseverance

God’s way of developing perseverance in our lives is this: “Prepare by instruction; learn by experience.”

  •  “Prepare by instruction” means studying the truths about God and His way of approaching life in the Bible. It also includes viewing God’s work in the lives of men and women in the Bible during much of their lifetime. We can see God’s faithfulness to them and be confident in His faithfulness to us as well. He is the same God.
  • “Learn by experience” means you trust in what you believe about God as you live out your life, and you apply what you learn from the Bible to every situation you face. It is being teachable. You can face any impossible situation if you are prepared by instruction from God and teachable to learn through experience with God. Perseverance is learned by experience.

You can learn more about perseverance in a believer’s life through our Profiles of Perseverance Bible Study.

The Holy Spirit inspired James to write this:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, (James 1:2)

When you read that, would you admit that the first phrase that comes to mind when you are suffering is pure joy? Pure joy was seeing my firstborn baby’s face as she was handed to me. Pure joy is having all of our kids together at Christmas, eating together as a family for the first time in months. Pure joy was watching LSU beat Clemson for the national title in football. Pure joy is not going through trials!

I thought, “Maybe it is the translation.” The Message version softens things up a little so let me see what it says.

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. (James 1:2, MSG)

A “sheer gift?” That does not help!

When you send a Christmas card that says, “Wishing you joy in the New Year,” you are probably thinking happiness, not trials, right?

We know the world’s joy is not what James is talking about. It is the biblical joy we defined at the beginning of this series as a deep, inner gladness regardless of circumstances. That comes only from a relationship with God. “Pure joy” can only come from God. And you can choose joy even in the midst of various trials.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. (James 1:2-3)

Sadly, for those of us who are book learners, we cannot learn perseverance from a book. We learn it through suffering. Ugh!

God knows that perseverance is good for us. For you and me to have perseverance requires the testing of our faith.

Perseverance requires the testing of your faith.

Suffering tests your faith. You know that to be true. Perseverance through that suffering actually makes your faith more beautiful.

Testing refers to the process of melting down rock called ore that has suspected gold in it. It is tested to see how much gold is in it and to remove anything that is not gold. Fire melts the ore. The heavier gold metal sinks. The weaker crud that is not gold floats to the top and is skimmed off, leaving just the real stuff.

The gold in the ore was already gold before being melted. But after melting, all that is left of the ore is pure and is useful for making jewelry, money, and decorations. Valuable stuff.

Testing faith that is already there

The testing of your faith is on faith you actually have. That is one thing you can rejoice about. You have faith worth testing. Gold in any amount is beautiful, isn’t it?

Jesus uses those tough times when you are under stress, pressure, pain, or suffering to float to the surface the parts of your character that are not so beautiful, not so strong, and not so godly. Those are the hindrances and entanglements that keep us from moving forward. And if we let Him, He will remove that not-so-beautiful stuff and strengthen what is left so we can persevere. The result is having stronger faith.

Testing faith to surface sinful tendencies.

Here is what can happen, especially for those of us who became believers as adults. Old habits and ways of doing things are hard to forget or ignore. Maybe you have been a believer for only a few years and had twenty years or more experience living life the world’s way, not God’s way. So when tough times hit, you revert to what worked for mom and dad, or your friends, or on social media, or in movies and on TV. When tough times hit, you keep your options open like this, “I’ll try God’s way, then my friend’s way, then my mom’s way,” and so forth. You know what I am talking about here.

That is sin. The scary thing is that if you choose to deal with the problem in a sinful way, Jesus will let you! We talked about that in Pathway #4: Choose Whom You Will Serve. But you are not going to get the wisdom to hold up. Are you double-minded like that? You know you are a Christian. You know what God says about right and wrong. But when faced with a trial, you don’t want to do it God’s way. You want to do it your own way. It is like asking Jesus for wisdom about your marriage while you are having an affair with a neighbor. It is a double-mindedness.

The picture I get is being on a carnival ride called the tilt-a-whirl. It is being tossed back and forth, unstable, and not anchored. Is that all you want for your life? Jesus wants more for you than that. Humble yourself, admit you have been doing it your way, and turn back towards Jesus. Let Him grow you up so you can faithfully persevere through any trial. It is knowing where you are going. With Jesus. Not against Him. That is how to move forward.

Testing to mature faith through perseverance

Perseverance accomplishes something else in our lives. Continuing in James,

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:4)

When you persevere through any pain, distress, or long-term challenge, you become mature, complete and lacking nothing. You will even have joy in the process as a reward at the end for holding on without giving way.

But to move forward with joy on a difficult pathway, you will need one more ingredient in the mix. You need to release your expectations of acceptable outcomes.

Perseverance requires releasing expectations of acceptable outcomes.

Let us unpack this statement.

Acceptable outcomes

Storms of life hit us sometimes without any warning and through no fault of our own. When we go through such difficulties of life, we all have what we would consider acceptable outcomes—deliverance, healing, getting rid of debt, happy relationships.

In our prayers, we often tell God how we want Him to answer that request. You know what I am talking about. I am guilty of setting up these expectations of what God should do for me. But those expectations can become hindrances and entanglements if we try to hold onto them too tightly.

Here is something I read in a magazine several years ago that grabbed my attention.

Joy requires us to release our expectation of what is an acceptable outcome. (Jenny Heckman, Just Between Us, Spring 2018, p. 44)

Expectations of acceptable outcomes. That would be what we think are acceptable outcomes.

When we approach troubles with expectations of what we think are acceptable outcomes from God and then something else happens, our disappointment and anger can explode like geysers shooting out of an underground chamber.

Releasing expectations

It is okay to ask for specific answers to prayer. But we need to hold onto those expected answers with open fingers. We must release them to Jesus, and let Him decide what to do. That is releasing expectations.

Paul did that in 2 Corinthians chapter 12.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:8-10)

Paul wanted to be healed and asked for it three times. When Christ gave His answer as “No,” Paul released that expectation of healing and replaced it with praise for having Christ’s power displayed in his own weakness.

When you release your expectation of acceptable outcomes, you can rejoice at what God has done or is going to do instead of complaining about what God did not do.

The example of Martha, Mary, and Jesus

Consider how both Martha and Mary responded to Jesus in John 11:21, 32: “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” That was their only acceptable outcome.

But Jesus had a greater purpose. What floors me is what John 11:5 says.

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. (John 11:5)

Jesus loved them. He loved them and still let them go through that pain! They did nothing wrong. He wept with them. But He had a greater purpose than theirs.

When Martha and Mary saw Him, they had to trust His goodness in whatever He would do for them in their trouble. What would be His acceptable outcome? Bringing a four-day dead Lazarus back to life was a far better outcome than what the sisters had in mind.

Release expectations by trusting in His goodness

Dear reader, you can avoid the trap of unreleased expectations. You do that by releasing them. By faith, you can know with certainty that Jesus loves you and knows what is going on in your life. You can have confidence in His power to do something about it. But the way to release expectations is to trust in His goodness in whatever He chooses to do in that situation.

It is okay to ask for your heart’s desire. But leave the decision in His hand. Accept the outcome that He provides. In adversity, God can avert the trouble, He can deliver you from it, or He can allow you to suffer through it. Let Him fill your heart with joy in whatever He chooses to do.

What trials are you going through right now? What in your mind do you expect to happen as acceptable outcomes?

It is time to release those expectations and stay on the right pathway for a joyful walk.

Perseverance is a choice.

God uses life’s challenges for our good.

We live in a fallen world. Bad things will happen. Life will be challenging and hard at times. If we are going to faithfully persevere, you and I are going to have to accept this—not like it, but recognize it and not be discouraged.

God is working during this time in history. He says to us, “Okay I am going to use those very things, those tough things to develop something in you, my daughters, so you can get through life successfully. And I will give you my joy during the process.” Do you believe Him?

When James wrote that you will know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance, this “knowing” is gained through living it, not head knowledge gained through reading about it.

I can read this and believe that it is true in my mind. But until I have experienced it myself or walked with a friend through a trial so I can see it is real, it just sounds like pie-in-the-sky, churchy kind of thinking. That is true for you as well.

Remember how I said that if we let Jesus do it, He will remove that not-so-beautiful stuff and strengthen what is left so we can faithfully persevere and have joy in the process—if we let Him. There is a choice to not let Him.

You must choose to let perseverance finish its work.

You have to choose perseverance for it to finish its work. What would be the opposite? Whining. Complaining. Grumbling. Anger at God. Giving up. Using an acceptable but unbiblical practice of your culture to fix it—whatever IT is.

We forget where we are going with Jesus. We move, change jobs, divorce, avoid, blame, consider ourselves victims, buy our way out, drink and drug our way out. You have seen your friends do this, have not you? Maybe you have done it. I know I have.

But if we let Him, Jesus will remove that yucky stuff to make us mature and complete, not lacking in anything needed. What does that mean?

It means having what is necessary to live out Jesus’ life in us on our faith walk. It does not mean perfect. We are not promised perfection in this life. But God will finish His particular work in us before He takes us home.

We live in the time period between Genesis 3 when sin entered the world and Revelation 21 when God does away with all sin and its effects. Where there’s sin, there is decay, destruction, and death. Relationally, emotionally, physically. That happens to everyone, even the best of Jesus’ followers. Jesus said so; James and Paul repeated it (Romans 5:3-5). This is foundational.

Sometimes we are promised by other people that if we just have enough faith, “Nothing bad will ever happen.” Have you heard that? Nice thought. Possible? Yes. Reasonable? No! Jesus never promised us an easy time. He puts it right out there in John so we will know,

In this world you will have trouble (John  16:33)

God has things for us to do during this time, and He needs us to be mature. To be grown up. It is hard work to grow up, isn’t it?

I am not good at letting perseverance finish its work when it is hard, and I have a way out. What about you? It is like exercising. I know I need to do it so I get started then get sidetracked and don’t get back to it. When I don’t have a way out, I am pretty good at persevering. That is the value of backpacking. You are stuck out there. You have to bear under the load and complete the trek in order to get out!!

Dear sisters, God allows things in our lives to test us, but His motive is not to trip us up. It is not to make us fail, although our choosing to do so is always a possibility. He allows us to share our needs with Him but wants us to release our expectations of acceptable outcomes and trust His goodness in whatever He chooses to do.

Jesus demonstrated perseverance for you and for me. You studied that in the lesson as you read Hebrews chapter 12:

Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:1-3)

We can know what perseverance looks like when we see the example of our Lord. He endured pain, shame, opposition and so much more. When we look at His example, we can keep moving forward in our storms of life and not grow weary or lose heart. But it is even better than that.

Perseverance is also a gift.

We can ask Jesus to give us His perseverance. Listen to this prayer in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3:

May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. (2 Thessalonians 3:5)

Christ’s perseverance. It is available to you and to me for the asking. The Holy Spirit can deliver that to us as a gift from God when we need it. I love that! Once again, with Christ, you are never left on your own to handle anything!

Be tenacious to hold onto Jesus. Keep standing and walking forward when the storms of life try to knock you down. Go wherever Jesus leads you to go. Persevere. Focus on what He is doing in the midst of what you are doing. Listen to His voice, drowning out all the others. Even when it hurts. When you are tired. When you want to give up. When you want to settle for less. Believe it or not, persevering through the really tough times will lead to a joyful walk of life with Him.

Our Profiles of Perseverance Bible Study will teach you more about having perseverance in your life.

The promise of a rewarding spiritual life

To have a joyful walk, you need to know Christ and bask in God’s marvelous grace to you. You need to grasp who you are as a Christian and choose whom you serve every day. You need to claim your freedom from bondage to legalism that tries to keep you in chains. You need to stay focused on Jesus so you can keep moving forward with perseverance through every trial. Experience the joy of becoming stronger, of fulfilling a purpose, and of growing up to maturity as God’s child. I am not talking about just when we get to heaven. I am talking today. The reward is a joyful walk with Christ for a lifetime.

Let Jesus satisfy your heart with joy so that your daily walk with Him will be a joyful one.

Learn more about having a rewarding spiritual life through our Pathways to a Joyful Walk Bible Study (6 lessons).

Image credit: photo by John Newton, accessed at flickr.com (8162179887_0c6797557b_o.jpg).

AI was not used to generate this post.

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