- Scripture Verse: But those who trust in the LORD will receive new strength. They will fly as high as eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not grow weak. Isaiah 40:31 (NIrV)
Bottom Line: When life seems impossible, remember what others did.
So we’ve been talking about perseverance—refusing to give up when life gets hard. And while it’s really easy to decide just to give up when the going gets tough, God wants us to persevere. He doesn’t want us to throw in the towel the minute the going gets tough.
And guess what? God has been helping people persevere for a very long time. People like Gideon. We can read about him in the Old Testament—that’s the first section of the Bible. Gideon was a guy from the weakest tribe, and he was the youngest in his family when God told him to gather an army to fight the enemy. Gideon thought that God had to be kidding! But he chose to listen to God. And once Gideon had gathered the army, God told him to narrow it down to just a few hundred men. Gideon thought it was the craziest plan ever! If it were me, I might have given up. But Gideon didn’t. Instead he chose to persevere.
He knew God was with him. Though it might have seemed impossible, Gideon and many, many others that we read about in the Bible, kept praying. They kept doing the right thing. They persevered.
Hebrews 12:1 (NIrV) says, “A huge cloud of witnesses is all around us”—meaning, since we’ve seen so many great examples of people who never gave up, like Gideon and David—“So let us throw off everything that stands in our way. Let us throw off any sin that holds on to us so tightly. Let us keep on running the race marked out for us.”
Chances are, you and I will never lead an army into battle. But we will face situations that are hard. We need to remember that God will be there to help us. He wants us, just like Gideon, to trust him and to keep doing the right thing, even when things get hard. Because when life gets hard, we need to remember what others did.
