Perseverance makes possibilities

Tribulations often bring with it despair, anxiety, fear and the feeling of being overwhelmed, how can it be dealt with joy? Although it is difficult, we can learn to enter into them with a calm, peaceful and unwavering heart, and let God lead us to step by step out of the rain and storm, and be victorious by the Lord! The first step to perseverance is to be calm and steadfast, and only by endurance can we overcome tribulations with its pains and sufferings. Perseverance is to actively take on the pains and sufferings courageously, and not a passive surrendering of oneself. It is important to be rooted in faith for us to stand firm in our tribulations, or else it is difficult to persist till the end. Perseverance can be perfected through practice, if we learned to endure first through smaller then larger difficulties, and eventually we will perfect our perseverance to overcome trials and tribulations. “Perseverance, character, and character, hope.” Romans 5:4. If we persevere through tribulations, and be refined as gold and silver, life will become more splendid and fruitful. Do not fear tribulations and its sufferings, believe that there are God’s good intentions and blessings behind every suffering, and trust and depend on the Lord always! The life sculpted by tribulations (is like raw stones sculpted into precious jewelry and) will be more meaningful, faithful and hopeful.

How to express “challenge and perseverance”? This is yet another challenge and breakthrough in my creativity! I prayed to God for a heart-warming and convincing vision. And a heartening image of “duckling climbing a platform” popped up in my mind, praise the Lord! We must have been encouraged by the perseverance of these brave little ducklings whether in real life or through shared videos. Despite the platform that is twice his height, the duckling overcomes the difficulties of the almost impossible obstacle through a lot of effort and endurance, and finally it succeeds and reaches the platform. At first, it appeared that the duckling didn’t jump high enough, but it did not give up and instead, he kept on trying to climb up the vertical wall, and though he fell and got stuck all without making a single ‘quack!’ And finally in the last mighty jump the cute little duckling finally made it up the platform! I believe that if we were present during the scene, we would all be cheering excitedly for the duckling and be so proud of his spirit of never quitting and his perseverance. If a sweet little duckling can gain victory over any difficulties in life, so can we overcome any walls in our life! Come, let us be victorious in the Lord!

The bright blue sky and the beautiful gardens also remind us to be joyous even amidst tribulations. Another example of perseverance is on the platform the little duckling is trying to reach, the tender green sprouting out of the cracks in the stone!

“we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;” – ‭‭Romans‬ ‭5:3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬