Endeavour To Persevere (Lesson 1)

Persevere- to continue in a course of action even in the face of difficulty

2 Chronicles 15:1-9 NASB

(1)  Now the Spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded,

(2)  and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the LORD is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.

 (8)  Now when Asa heard these words and the prophecy which Azariah the son of Oded the prophet spoke, he took courage and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities, which he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim.  He then restored the altar of the LORD, which was in front of the porch of the LORD.

(9)  He gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon who resided with them, for many defected to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.

If we are to persevere, we must listen to the Lord.  God sent Azariah to deliver the message.  Asa faced the situation head-on.  He removed the Idols and restored the altar of the Lord.  His response caused others to move toward God as well. 

In Philippians 3:13-14, Paul says that he is forgetting his past and moving forward.  He says that he is pressing on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  

Satan would have us linger on our past.  This can be both failures and successes.  Remember, Satan’s goal is to distract us from pressing on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  We cannot live in the past, we must live for today and do what we do in the name of Jesus.

Isn’t this what Asa had set in his mind to do?