Apr 16, 2026 – Persevere
Rome, Italy
Simpson encourages, “Be brave. Cowards always get hurt. Brave men generally come out unharmed. Jeremiah was a hero. He shrank from nothing…. came through the siege of Jerusalem without a hair being injured. Zedekiah, the cowardly king, was always afraid to obey God and be true, and the result was that he at last met the most cruel punishment that was ever inflicted on a human heart.” Simpson leaves us there to discover the story for ourselves as he moves on to make his encouraging point, “The men and women that stand from the beginning true to their convictions have the fewest tests. When God gives you to a good trial, if you can stand the strain, He is not always repeating it…. Do not let Satan see that you are afraid of him, for he will pursue to the death if he thinks that he has a chance of getting you.”
1 Corinthians 16:13 – “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.”
Power – John 14:16 reminds us that we can be strong and courageous because of the Holy Spirit in us – “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain in you forever.” Joyce reminds us that, “God comforts us in our time of need so we might then comfort others in theirs. God always expects us to give away what He gives us. This is a spiritual law, and it is the way to keep a steady flow of whatever we need coming into our lives. The more we encourage others, the more encouraged we will be ourselves (see Luke 6:38)…. When we live to be blessings, we will be blessed in return.”
Utmost – John 12:36 – “While ye have light, believe in the light.” Chambers’ language has me rereading a few times, but I think I get where he’s leading, “We all have moments when we feel better than our best, and we say – ‘I feel fit for anything; if only I could be like this always!’ We are not meant to be. Those moments are moments of insight which we have to live up to when we do not feel like it.” What I’m getting is that we all have times when we think we have done something well or figured something out and feel on top of things, but when that feeling wanes or something happens to make us doubt ourselves, we have to draw on those feelings and strengths again.
Chambers seems to be encouraging us to be brave, “Never allow a feeling which was stirred in you in the high hour to evaporate…. We have to learn to live in the grey day according to what we saw on the mount. Don’t cave in because you have been baffled once, get at it again. Burn your bridges behind you, and stand committed to God by your own act. Never revise your decisions, but see that you make your decisions in the light of the high hour.”
COTH – Stockstill gives us an example, from Joshua 13 and 14, of a brave and committed man, “Caleb was a man of unrelenting pursuit. His eyes had seen a mountain, and Moses had given him a promise. Although he was now eighty-five years old, his resolve and desire to possess the promise were undiminished. He said to Joshua, ‘So I’m asking you to give me the hill country that the Lord promised me’ (Joshua 14:12). Then this elderly man of faith promptly went in and drove out the giants who lived there! Forty-five years of waiting did nothing to daunt this man’s purposes in God. How often do we ‘circle the mountain’ one time and then decide it is not the will of God for us to receive what we need? In many instances recorded in the Bible, people of faith had to persevere in order to receive the promise….Pursue your dream. And until the dream comes to pass, continue to proclaim, ‘Give me this hill country!’”
