Have you ever felt like your faith is a little lost? Almost feels like you’re in the wilderness wandering around searching for water and you are so tired of walking and you’re thirsty and you’re just like… Whhhhhhy am I here? Feels like you just wanna lie down and give up the search… You don’t want to press on… You feel hopeless.

But with God, you don’t give up. At times it took an utterly defeated surrender to allow God to show up for you. To realize you can’t win by yourself. You can’t survive on your own anymore. Sometimes you gave it the very last push, but you gave it all you got.

And then the water appears, and you’ve survived… And it’s almost as though you forget you were ready to give up at all?

I spend so much time focused on perseverance. But the important part of what perseverance does is what is birthed afterwards. Perseverance brings you through the toughest situations with an almost trophy-like memory of victory and how we made it out, if you’re paying attention… Reminding ourselves that God is in control, loves us, and will use every ugly thing for beauty.

That memory, like a bold testimony of the truth in God, becomes EXHIBIT A. Proof that it’s happened before and it can happen again. Inspecting EXHIBIT A let’s us consider the lessons and opportunities in the midst of it all.

So, next time something comes up you may find you carry yourself a little different, with new formed characteristics of strength and wisdom… And there’s a little bit of hope… And you persevere again… Then you find yourself on EXHIBIT X and your hope, even if you’re feeling totally defeated, speaks loudly and says, “but He WILL do it again…”

Then start thinking about all these times in the past when you had a similar feeling, except you also remember what you gained… You survived… You grew a little… Had the strengthening of experience change you… How that feeling didn’t win those times in the past, and yet those times also made you better, wiser, stronger, more amazing.

So, not only have you survived before, but this new version of you is even better than any version before. As a result, you kind of have this realization that you can’t stop trying… You can’t give up… You have to persevere.

And before you know it your faith is huge, the panic ends quicker, you find yourself reminding yourself how God showed up last time, He will surely show up this time! We rejoice in our trials because we get to persevere again… We get to gain character… We build a stronger hope… We attain more solid faith… And it’s worth it.

I need this reminder just like anyone else… But He WILL show up, even if it’s seemingly at the very last moment… And if all I have to show for it is encouraging the next to stand up and not give up… That’s success.