EXCITING NEWS!!

I am honored to share a wonderful opportunity that I had as one of thirty authors for a new book on perseverance! It is compiled by my talented friend Landen Melton, who created Devotable, a Christian daily devotional app for your phone. Landen and I began working together a couple of years ago when he started his ministry to equip people daily with God’s Word. He is passionate about helping others grow in their faith and that makes me want to partner with him all the more in this endeavor! This 30-day devotional provides practical insight on how we can all grow in our perseverance.  Be sure to check out (in the link listed down below) how to order your copy today AND sign up for the Devotable app for your own daily encouragement from the Bible.

I know you will enjoy Landen’s guest post for me on 3 practices that help us endure.

How do we endure hardship as Christians?

If there’s one thing in this life that is for sure, it’s that we will all face hardship, trials, and tests at some point. There are a few key principles and techniques I believe can help us all, from the new believer to the veteran.

 

When I was a boy in elementary school, we used to have physical fitness tests. This involved doing things throughout the week like sit-ups, pull-ups, the sit and reach, shuttle run, and the dreaded mile run.

 

For the majority of kids in school, besides a few of those oddballs, we all hated the mile run. It was long, hard, and you ended up nice and sweaty at the end. Most people endured it by walking, jogging every so often or just flat out sprinting through it and getting it done. Like I mentioned, very few actually did it and really enjoyed it.

 

I was one of the regular crowd that didn’t really like that part of the physical fitness test. However, as I got older, I started to discipline myself by running a few times a week. After a few months of pushing through, I actually started to like running and began to increase my pace and distance. Before I knew it, I was training for 5k races, 10k races and even ended up doing a couple of half marathons. Once I disciplined myself to endure the hardship of running, it actually became enjoyable to me and I craved doing it each week.

 

The Christian walk isn’t so different. We must discipline ourselves to do certain things each day and before too long, we’ll start to yearn for those things in our life. These things include prayer, worship, bible study, and communion with God. And it’s these things that I believe are the secret for enduring hardship in this life.

 

Prayer

 

If I were to look you in the eye right now and tell you “you’re my best friend”, you would likely think I’m crazy. Besides the few people who might be reading this that I actually know, most of you are strangers to me. For me to say that we’re best friends is just absurd because I don’t know you. We don’t talk to each other, we don’t know each other’s habits, strengths, personality, or traits.

 

Too many of us say that we know the Lord and He’s our friend yet we don’t ever talk to him. So how can we say he’s our friend? How can we say the Lord is on our side if we don’t truly commune with Him?

 

One of the most powerful ways we endure hardship in this life is by leveraging constant communication with the Creator of the universe. He’s the One who brings comfort in grief, peace in the storm, and strength through pain.

 

I believe one of the most powerful ways we have to endure hardship in this life is by utilizing the ability to talk with God daily. You need to be petitioning him daily. As Christians, we should be turning to God every day because he is faithful to help us overcome every trial, every temptation, and hardship (1 Corinthians 10:13).

 

Study

 

When Jesus was tempted on the mountain by Satan, what did he use to defeat him? He used scripture! Jesus repeated scripture to Satan to put him in his place.

 

If Jesus, the author, and writer of the Bible Himself, used scripture, how much more important is it for us to use it in our daily lives? It is paramount for our survival to know, own, and use scripture to default the enemies of this world and endure all hardship.

 

Studying the word is not easy though. Like my eventual love for running I mentioned earlier, that didn’t come easy. I had to discipline myself to do it weekly for several months before it became a habit and I truly enjoyed it.

 

Now it might be a little different because as believers, we have an innate desire to learn about our Saviour. We have an urge to learn and should have a love for scripture. But studying and memorizing scripture for most is hard and repetitious. It requires diligence and persistence to master.

 

I urge you, if you don’t have time during the day you set aside for study and memorization of scripture, you need to make some. In order to endure hardship and temptation as Christ did, we must wield the sword of scripture at our enemies. If we want to have any chance of overcoming, we must learn scripture and allow it to penetrate our soul (Hebrews 4:12).

 

Worship

 

Worship is powerful!

 

It doesn’t have to be done in a church service. You can worship in your car, in your office, or in your bathroom getting ready in the morning.

 

One of the best times of worship I generally have is when I’m sitting alone in my office, writing, and listening to worship songs. There is something about listening to worship music and writing about our Lord that stirs my soul. It makes me think and draws me closer to Him. It helps me recall the scripture that I know when I hear certain lyrics of the songs. It helps me listen to the voice of God inside my heart.

 

Worship is meant to draw us closer to God and we need that daily in our lives. Just as we need study and prayer, we also need worship to help us endure hardship. When we worship our Lord, we commune with him in a different way. We draw near to him, and he draws near to us (James 4:8).

 

People worship in different ways. Some people listen to music. Some sing while others simply sit quietly and worship in their spirit and soul. However you worship, I encourage you to have a time of worship each day, just like prayer and study. Worshipping our risen Savior gives us strength even in our darkest times. Often it’s in those times that we need worship the most.

 

The Perseverance Book by Devotable

 

As we endure hardship in this life, we must know that we’re not alone. We can rest assured that other believers have walked this path before. It often helps to hear and read their stories, connect with them and allow them to use the maturity and character they’ve built through these trials to help us.

 

Devotable has compiled a book of 30 devotions where people talk about their experiences persevering in the faith. Through death, sickness, family issue, marriage issues and much more, they detail their experience, offer thoughtful advice, questions, and scripture on how to persevere through your trials. If you need help with perseverance, I encourage you to check out this devotional.

 

Bio

Landen is a web developer by trade and online entrepreneur by passion. He is the owner and creator of Devotable, an online Christian daily devotion project. Together with over 100 talented writers, they create inspiring devotions that help encourage believers and share the good news of Jesus Christ daily.

Thank you, Landen, for your faithfulness to God’s kingdom and allowing me to join your efforts!