…praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints…
Ephesians 6:18 (ESV)
The definition of perseverance is “to persist in any business or enterprise undertaken; to pursue steadily any design or course commenced; not to give over or abandon what is undertaken; applied alike to good and evil.”
To persevere means more than to endure - more than simply holding on until the end. Our lives in the hands of God are like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. So many times God is aiming at something we cannot see, but He continues to stretch and strain us to grow us for His purpose.
If we desire to live godly lives in Christ, we will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). The faithful will persevere, kept by the power of the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantor of our salvation and who will keep us “strong to the end,” persevering so we will be “blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:8).
“God knows our situation; He will not judge us as if we had no difficulties to overcome. What matters is the sincerity and perseverance of our will to overcome them.” - C.S. Lewis