Be still, and know that I am God. — Psalm 46:10
This morning devotional I read by Oswald Chambers resonated with me, so I decided to post it here with my thoughts:
Tenacity is more than endurance; it’s endurance combined with the absolute certainty that what we expect to happen is going to happen. Tenacity isn’t simply hanging on. Hanging on can be a weakness, a sign that we’re too afraid to let go. Tenacity is the supreme effort of refusing to believe that our hero is going to be defeated. As disciples, our greatest fear isn’t that we will be damned. It’s that Jesus Christ will be defeated, and that the things he stood for—love and justice and forgiveness and kindness—won’t win out in the end. God calls us to the discipline of spiritual tenacity. He asks us to do more than simply hang on. He asks us to work deliberately for him in the certainty that he’s not going to be defeated.
If we are disappointed and losing hope just now, it means that we are being purified. There is nothing noble the human mind has ever hoped for or dreamed of that will not be fulfilled. One of the greatest stresses in life is the stress of waiting for God. But God has promised that our patience will be rewarded.
I think most of us think of hanging on with tenacity or perseverance is something we do in just when things aren’t going well. Gritting our teeth, waiting for things to get better, maybe even questioning God on why things aren’t working out like we think they should be.
But, even in good times, not only is God still on the throne, but all His plans for us that are spelled out in the Bible are still in the works. Jesus is still coming back, and all the prophetic events we study in Daniel and Revelation are still in progress. The problem is for Christians, when things are going well, we tend to lean less on God and more on ourselves. Things are going well, so what is there really to pray and ask for?
That is exactly what the enemy wants to happen. Satan works just as well when things are going well as when they aren’t. While he certainly has victories in our lives when things don’t go well, he know we can be tripped up sometimes easier when life seems to be going right, as we’re less aware of the temptations all around us. Not always temptation to do evil and sin, but to think we don’t need to have a daily focus on God, even in the good times.
That means that even when life and society seem to be headed in the right direction, we must still have eyes for eternity, and not lose Who we keep our focus and priority centered on.
“Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial” (Revelation 3:10).
Staying spiritually focused is just as much of a test in good times as it is in bad times.
Remain spiritually tenacious.
Dead Man Walking 
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