Perseverance in Hope

There is one thing that I hate. One thing that scares me. One thing that is super hard for me in following God. Well... more than one thing if I am honest. But there is one thing that comes back me a lot!

Perseverance.

I am caught up with all of these thoughts about it. I am close to God for now. But what about tomorrow?  

I have been reading the Bible for now, but what about later on?

Am I going to lose this? How can I keep it up?

Some of these are silly questions. Ones that keep going around in my brain like a happy hamster running on his wheel.

I know those scenarios are not likely to happen. Yet perseverance is still hard for me on a daily basis.

A friend reminded me a few days ago just how long the Jews waited for Jesus to come.

Four thousand years.

One of my favorite songs is a A Thousand Years by Christina Perri. 

A thousand years seems like forever to me. Yet the Jews waited for four times longer than that. Dip into the Old Testament and see the waiting. 

The wandering, the wondering. Even before entering the Promised Land the Jews wandered for 40 years in the desert. 

Like the Jews in the four thousand years before Christ’s birth we have to persevere.

Persevere in that hope that is the longing for Christmas. Embracing the flaws, suffering, loneliness, longing because all of this is to God.

Sometimes you get to Christmas and it seems like the waiting isn't even over yet. The waiting to be healed and transformed. The waiting to be transformed.

When this happens, realize that you are called to wait in hope, in hope for the coming of the kingdom.

A coming that is not even fulfilled by Christmas. We are still waiting in joyful hope for his second coming. 

Persevere in hope.

Be not Afraid! I am praying for you.

~Emily