Encouragement To Persevere In Christ Series

Encouragement to Persevere in Christ.

We are continuing in our series on Discovering Your Destiny and we are thinking about what it means to Persevere.

The Christian life is not the easy option. If we are honest, we know that there are times when we struggle to live in the way that God has commanded us to live.

Maybe in your life there have been times when you have encountered problems.

Maybe in your life there have been times when you have struggled.

Maybe in your life there have been times when you have felt like giving up.

Yet you persevered, in God’s strength you carried on, you let God’s love and mercy and grace carry you on.

When there was no hope, God was your hope.

When there seemed to be no way, God made a way.

When your strength was gone, God was your strength.

When you needed guidance and encouragement to persevere God was faithful.

God guided you through those difficult times and you persevered, you endured, you overcame, you survived, because God was with you.

Perhaps this morning you need some Encouragement to Persevere.

I want us to consider together a passage from Colossians chapter 1. Let me give you a little background first.

Paul wrote this letter to the Christians in the city of Colosse because they were in need of guidance and encouragement to persevere.

Paul’s purpose in writing Colossians was to encourage the church to focus on Jesus their Messiah, and to keep Him at the centre of their lives.

There had been a number of false preachers who had been leading the congregation astray. Their teaching was in error. They were adding their opinion and subtracting truth. The result of this false teaching was that many of the Colossians had become confused about what it really meant to live as a disciple of Christ.

So the Apostle Paul wrote to them to direct people back to the real basis of their faith in Jesus, to help them to persevere in the truth of the Gospel. Paul reminds them of the undeserved love and mercy of Father God, demonstrated in the sending of Jesus, His only begotten Son, to bear the punishment for sin.

Paul reminds them of God’s commandments and how a follower of Christ is meant to live.

The words that the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write nearly 2000 years ago are still applicable to us today.

God’s Word still gives us direction on how we are persevere in our daily walk with God.

God’s Word still tells us how we are to live our lives in a way that is worthy of our Lord’s sacrifice for us.

God’s Word gives us the strength to endure the problems and hardships of life.

God’s Word gives us the motivation to persevere by reminding us of His undeserved love, grace and mercy to us every day.

Listen to the words of Paul in Colossians 1:9-14,

So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honour and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. We also pray that you will be strengthened with all His glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to His people, who live in the light. For He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

Paul’s prayer for the Colossians was they would persevere.

Persevere to understand God’s will for their lives.

Persevere to spiritual maturity.

Persevere to patiently endure hardship.

Persevere to grow in their relationship with God.

Our prayer should be the same as the Apostle Paul.

We need to persevere, we need to endure.

We need to understand God’s will and purpose for our lives.

We need to grow in spiritual maturity

We need to draw closer to Jesus.

Lets unpack these verses a little further and discover how the Apostle Paul tells us how we can persevere in our daily lives as disciples of Christ.

Colossians 1:9, We have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Paul’s prayer for the Colossians is also a prayer for us. Our lives would be so different if we could fully understand God’s will and purpose for our lives. Instead of wondering, fully knowing, complete knowledge. Real spiritual maturity.