2 Peter 1:5-7 “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.”

Last spring I was reading the above passage and decided to look up the original Greek for each of the attributes listed in 2 Peter 1:5-7. Something that really stood out to me was the meaning of the word perseverance. The Greek word for “perseverance” is “hypomonḗ” which means: “cheerful (or hopeful) endurance, constancy.”

I always thought of perseverance as not giving up until you’ve completed the task. It didn’t matter what your attitude was so long as you didn’t give up. But biblical perseverance is cheerful or hopeful endurance. This rocked my world.

Recently I’ve been studying to compete in the National Bible Bee competition. There is a lot of studying and memorizing to prepare for the competition, and it’s challenging. The memorizing is the hardest part for me. I often think, “Oh, it will only take this long to memorize this passage,” and then I find out I way underestimated! When this happens, I struggle with becoming frustrated. I often feel like stomping my foot, growling, crying, or doing all three. As I was working on verses the other day, the definition for perseverance popped into my mind: cheerful or hopeful endurance. My attitude towards the hardships of memorizing verses was not cheerful at all. God convicted me of this, and though it’s tough and I’m not the best at it, I’ve been working towards having biblical perseverance while I study and memorize for this competition.

James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

There are lots of things in our lives that require perseverance or endurance, whether it’s perseverance when God is teaching us to be more like Him, perseverance when studying for a test, or perseverance when going through a tough time in our lives. It’s easy to tough our way through these kinds of things with a grumpy attitude, but the Bible says to consider these trials as joy because we know that God is using them to make us more like Him.

One of my favorite passages about endurance is Hebrews 10:35-39:
“Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But My righteous one shall live by faith; And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.” (Hebrews 10:35-39)

So how can we cheerfully and hopefully endure through the trials and tests in our lives? Here are 3 tips I’ve found from Hebrews 10:35-39, and I hope you’ll find them useful too.

1: Choose to be confident in Christ. When something is hard, it’s easy to feel discouraged, but we’re exhorted to not throw away our confidence. We aren’t supposed to be confident in our strength, though. We can be confident because we have Christ in us who will work mightily through us (see Colossians 1:29).

2: Look to the promise. God gives us many promises in His Word. One of those promises is to be our strength. Psalm 73:25-26 says, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” When you feel like giving up, remember God’s promise to be your strength. (And always look to the promise of eternal life, where there will be no more pain or tears or sorrow!)

3: Don’t shrink back. As you walk through whatever trials are in your life, choose to stand boldly in Christ. Don’t give up because the task is hard or scary. Let us be those who have faith to the preserving of the soul!

Finally, whenever you feel frustrated and you don’t feel like being joyful as you persevere, I encourage you to take a moment to pray and fix your eyes on Christ. Psalm 16:11 says, “You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” Ask the Lord to give you joy in His presence, and then allow Him to do so in your life.

Press on, sisters!

With love,

Kelsey

P.S. To learn more about the National Bible Bee competition, visit https://biblebee.org/