If We Do Not Give Up: The Art of Perseverance and Faith

Ever felt like your good deeds are like seeds scattered into the wind, uncertain if they'll take root? Join us as we unfold the powerful message of Galatians 6:9 and discover how to keep sowing positivity with hope for a bountiful harvest. Our latest episode isn't just another sermon; it's a heartfelt conversation to uplift your spirit during those times when the well of goodwill feels as though it’s running dry. We traverse the common hurdles that try our patience and challenge our resolve to do good. Through candid discussions and reflections on biblical figures like Daniel, we uncover the significance of persistent faith and the virtue of celebrating every step forward, no matter how small.

Feel your inner strength wane lately? You're not alone, and this episode is your replenishing stream. We'll share why recognizing progress is essential, not only for our mental health but also as fuel to keep our moral engines running. As we navigate the complexities of continuous effort and delayed gratification, we remind you that your hard work is carving out a future of blessings. There are no guests this time—it's just us and our shared experiences, fortified by scriptural wisdom, offering solace and encouragement. So, if your heart is heavy and your motivation is waning, tune in. Let’s renew our resolve together and march forward with renewed hope and expectation.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Galatians 6-9 says this Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Sisters, we all face seasons where we're doing good feels exhausting. Okay, when acts of service go unnoticed, kindness is unreciprocated and persistence is unrewarded. I've been there too, right Pour it out, yet wanting to quit. But Galatians 6-9 offers encouragement for such times. So let us glean hope from God's word to persevere in doing good, and that's what we're going to get into today. Alright, so let's break this down a little bit. We're going to break down and dissect what this is really saying. First, let us not grow weary in doing good. At this verse, usually, when it's said to us, we focus on okay, or I've heard it said to me okay, we just got to keep going, we just got to keep doing good and it will all come back to you, and just keep on going. It's just used to push us to do more, as opposed to what the verse is really saying, which it acknowledges fatigue in continued good deeds. So Paul is saying listen, you are going to grow weary in doing good. It's going to happen. So it is okay to acknowledge the fact that sometimes we are tired. Why? Because we are only human and even Jesus acknowledged that. Because that is why we have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us strength, it pushes us on, because if we were to do this all on our own we would just pass out. We do not have the strength to do the work that God requires us to do. We need divine help, we need divine counsel, we need that push. But there is going to be times when you are just straight up for real, for real, tired. Okay. And the fact that this verse points that out, that we are going to grow weary, is a little comforting to me because it takes away that sense of guilt in feeling like sometimes I cannot go another step without God's help. But it does encourage us to don't get weary in doing the good. Keep doing good. You're going to get weary, but keep doing good, keep on going, push through that with the help of God. So don't ignore it, but keep on pushing ahead. And then it says proper time and this affirms that God's perfect timing. This affirms God's perfect timing for an expected harvest. So there is a time set for you to see the fruit of your labor and that is the reason why you should keep pushing ahead, that you should not get tired of doing the good work that you're doing now, right, and it goes into reparvest if we do not give up. And this promises future fruit if we persist faithfully. So let's go do that again. Let us not grow weary in doing good. It acknowledges that you are going to be tired. You are going to be tired, but keep on pushing ahead, because God has a perfect time that he has already set to expect the harvest. The harvest will come at a certain time and we will reap that harvest if we do not give up. Get it All right, so let's move on.

Speaker 1: 4:41

So why does persevering gets hard Right? Number one lack of visible progress. We don't see the fruit and it does get disheartening, but growth happens invisibly Growth. What happens in heaven will be seen on earth. So sometimes you will not see what's happening under the ground. Right, when you plant the seed, you don't see when it starts to germinate and all of that under the ground. You only see when that plant pushes up through the ground and now you can see the harvest. But there is something happening, there's something brewing under the ground and that's why we should keep pushing ahead. You should keep watering, you should keep, you know, stirring up the dirt, you should keep that fresh, keep keeping away pests and all of that stuff in order to see the fruit. But we will get tired sometimes of doing all that work because we don't see the progress. Then there's the fatigue of continual effort. Sometimes you get tired of watering if you don't see anything.

Speaker 1: 5:48

I had my. I just started gardening and you know I'm a newbie, I don't know. I'm thinking I'm supposed to plant this seed on Monday and on Friday I'm supposed to see some fruit. I'm, you know I'm supposed to see my herbs coming up and got really frustrated when, for a couple of weeks, I didn't see anything and I was like, oh my goodness, I don't even know what's happening here. Did I do everything right? I started going on Google and researching what did I do wrong? What can I do? Started running a home depot and all the plant places and getting all the fertilizers and all of a sudden, maybe like a month later, I started to see some fruit. But it wasn't necessarily because of my effort, because actually, as I was adding things and adding fertilizer, it was killing the plants around what I was the plant that I was actually trying to make grow. It was killing everything else, so my effort was actually slowing down the process. All I needed to do was be patient and do what I knew how to do and and it will grow. I will eventually see that fruit. But I was getting tired and I was getting frustrated, right.

Speaker 1: 6:54

So sometimes we get like that. The next reason why is no perceived reward or incentive. You know, unlike the world where you actually, if you work, you get a paycheck. If you sing well, you get on an award show. If you sell enough albums, you get in a reward. You know, if you do your chores well as a child, your parents will give you an allowance or something. So we like to see rewards right then and there. But kingdom currency is stored in heaven. It's stored in heaven, so sometimes we will live our whole lives doing the work. We don't like to hear this. We live our whole lives doing the work and will not see any fruit until that glorious day when God says to you personally well done, thou good and faithful servant. And sometimes you're going to have to hold on to that. You're going to have to hold on to that. Next is comparison with others who do less but seem blessed. Okay, these folks are just chilling or just running around, not making much effort, but you're watching them and you're seeing that people are lauding all kind of compliments on them. And here's a good example.

Speaker 1: 8:15

As myself, as an introvert, I like to work behind the scenes and kind of just get things done. I don't like a lot of distraction, I don't like a lot of people in my way, I just want to get the work done. And I've worked in situations with other people who are extroverts and there were really good people. There were people, persons. They were talkative, they were funny, people were drawn to them and they would seem to be lauded and put up there and given all the accolades and they would do no work, while the rest of us in the background, who were a little more quiet and reserved and not so social, we would be the ones stuck with all the work because we had a different work ethic and for a while, especially in a church setting, that would really get under my skin Like man. This person is getting all the accolades and the promotions and all this stuff and they don't do nothing. All they do is smile well, and make a couple of jokes and everybody's.

Speaker 1: 9:14

And then God had to teach me that he's the one that is really watching and my reward is with him and I shouldn't really worry about what's going on or who's getting rewards from men. I should be worried about pleasing him because in the end, his reward is what really matters. There is more value there than in any reward any man could ever give. And also, eventually, it taught me discipline, because those folks tended not to be too disciplined and eventually they would burn out or people would actually see that they did not put too much effort in any work or their work was lackluster or underperforming or whatever it was, and they would see the truth of the matter. So not that I wanted to see that necessarily is just that that was always the outcome, right. So you know this is the reason.

Speaker 1: 10:07

These are a couple of the reasons here that you know it's okay to feel this way. I just wanna put that out there. For these reasons it's okay to feel this way, but it teaches us to kind of be disciplined, to persevere, to overcome. These are the things that we have to get past, but they're normal and they do happen. So don't feel guilty when you get into these spaces. Just don't stay there. That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1: 10:31

So here are some practices to persevere. Number one shift your focus from outcomes to obedience. Okay, don't always look for the accolades, the rewards, the compliments. Don't look at that and don't do anything expecting those things, because you will be sorely disappointed Sometimes, actually all the time. You should just obey God and do what he says to do, just for obedience sake, and leave it at that. Okay, he may not even reward you for it, because he can do whatever he wants he's sovereign right but the expectation is that you should be obedient, no matter what. You may even suffer for being obedient, but the expectation is that you be obedient.

Speaker 1: 11:30

Next is we need to remind ourselves of Jesus' modeling and future reward. Okay, jesus was obedient all the way to the end of his life and he did that to model how we should be obedient. We should ask God for strength, joy and endurance for each day, each and every task. Strength and joy and endurance that is what the Holy Spirit is there for to give us that, to help us, to guide us, to push us along, to replace our weariness with joy, energy. You know all of it, all of it. So we should ask for that and he will willingly give that to us. We should also set small milestones and celebrate progress.

Speaker 1: 12:26

When you have progress, I have a tendency actually to sort of always look in the future. So even though I accomplish things right now, I'll be like, oh man, okay, what's next? What's next, what's next? To the point where you don't even recognize that you've actually accomplished something and you don't celebrate. So you end up beating yourself up because you're always looking at the end goal but you don't recognize the little small things that you've done to get there. You don't recognize your progress. When you do that, it's kind of a mental thing. It just helps you to keep going to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. When you realize, oh okay, I've accomplished something Wonderful. So for your own mental health, for your own mental health, just celebrate the progress. Okay.

Speaker 1: 13:10

You'll be surprised at how much further you'll get when you do that and also foster a community to support and cheer each other on. If you don't have people that cheer you on, then it's gonna be kind of harder to get through those tough times. So we all need each other, we all need people to encourage us because, as you're doing good, there are gonna be people that are gonna try to buffer you, that are gonna try to hold you back for many, many, many different reasons. It could be jealousy, envy, it could be they just don't believe in you. It could be that's just their personality. It could be anything and that could be discouraging sometimes. But when you have people out there to kind of balance that out with encouragement and guidance and wisdom and mentoring and all of that, you'll get much further along, okay. So the last thing is we have to trust in God's timing and this is how we do this right. We know that his timing is perfect and we are impatient. Recognize it His timing is perfect. It could take forever, but his timing is perfect.

Speaker 1: 14:19

I was just in a ladies' conference and at my church and it was so beautiful. So the minister was talking about the life of Daniel and all the things he had to go through through his life and I was like, oh my I. It just didn't dawn on me that you know, daniel was thrown into the lion's den in his old age. Okay, so we're still going through this after you were taking captive in a in a different land as a young age possibly turned into a eunuch, right? Because if you're in the King's palace and you're coming from another nation, most likely you're going to be there.

Speaker 1: 14:55

He was under the care of the eunuch, so most likely he was turned into a eunuch. So now you can't have kids, you can't do any of that stuff, right? They change your name, they change your, your lifestyle, they try to erase your identity. So you're going through that as a child, then as a teenager he's going through. Or a young man he's going through some other things. He's being thrown into. His friends are being thrown into the fiery furnace, then he's being at the end of his life, he's being thrown into the lion's den. So all through his life he's just going through tests after tests after tests, never stopping. There's never a time where it's just cool.

Speaker 1: 15:27

And in between those major events in the Bible it's like, okay, what was he doing? Most likely he was just remaining faithful, he was continuing, he was doing what he was supposed to do as a Hebrew, as a you know. So we have to continue doing what we're, what we know to do in between those highs and lows in our lives. So, knowing that God's time is perfect, because it really wasn't until the end of his life that he had the visions and the dreams and he saw the angel and all of that stuff and he fasted and the angel visited him. That was he was way.

Speaker 1: 16:03

I believe she said in his 80s or 90s that I was like, oh my, so this journey doesn't end. There is no rest. Until you know you, we still see Jesus, so we have to be encouraged by that. There will be delays to test your maturity and your character and your faith. God will slow you down and we get frustrated by that because we want things full speed ahead, fast results. I want it now. And we just get frustrated when we have to slow down and learn and we have to mature. In those times God will do it and we have to recognize, be alert enough, be connected to him enough to know when he's slowing you down so you don't get frustrated. Then you know we have the opportunity to model persistence for others.

Speaker 1: 16:55

Remember, there's other people watching us as well. So not only are you going through this journey for growth and maturity for yourself and to build your own character, other people that are coming up behind you or even around you. They're watching you for inspiration, for instruction, because they may go through the same thing in their life as well and they want to know okay, well, how do I get through this? Okay, I watched Sister So-and-so get through it, all right, so let me try what she's doing. So remember, somebody's always watching.

Speaker 1: 17:25

When I was younger, I was always watching the older woman to see man. Okay, how did they get through this? I had a mentor. I would ask all kind of questions to what did you do? And even my own pastor at the time, you know, I modeled some things that he did and how he responded to adversity, how he was persistent, he was disciplined, he was diligent in everything and I picked up those habits. So somebody's picking up some habits from you. So keep that in mind. And all of this is to make us fully, fully rely on him and not ourselves.

Speaker 1: 18:02

And remember, a harvest will satisfy in proportion to labor. So you don't, you do little work, you're going to get a little harvest. You, you put all, you're all in there. You're going to get a big harvest. So remember that it only all depends on you.

Speaker 1: 18:22

So, as Galatians encourages, persistence matters because one day the harvest will come, no matter what. There isn't a point in time, it's just up to you about how much of that you're going to see, and so we have to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Through the grind. Okay, it's going to be a grind, and what you so faithfully in season though weary, though tired, frustrated you will yield a blessing. So take heart, the weight is never, ever, ever, ever wasted. All right, I hope you got something out of this episode today. Remember you can also read all the points, the scriptures, on StaceyKamillecom. Remember to subscribe and share, and if you want me to discuss anything or you want to see anything happening in discussions any guests please feel free to contact me on the website or reach out to me on Twitter at StayKamille. I love to hear from you. Be blessed. See you next time.