Tenacity

2/22/2020

Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God.”

Tenacious: continuing despite difficulties, opposition, or discouragement

I have never been a tenacious person. I have often given up when I have felt something was too difficult, or if it incited too much opposition. It became a self-protective coping mechanism. When people disagreed with me about anything, I would always back down. It was better to not make waves. When I tried playing an instrument and it became challenging, I gave it up. When I tried my hand at art, having no natural abilities, I stopped. Sports? Nope. Cooking? Not good at that either. And so on and so on. Throughout my life, I never really gave anything a fighting chance. I always thought it was better to cut my losses than to truly fail, for then it became my choice. Unfortunately, my low self-esteem kept me on that hamster wheel of reasoning for a very long time. I was always in search of my gift; I mean, doesn’t everyone have a gift of some kind? My mistake was looking at gifts in the tactile realm only. In my mind, my gift had to be concrete, something I could show or prove.

Then I learned to “be still”. This verse from Psalms became one of my life verses, along with Philippians 4:4-9. I was in the battle of my life, fighting under my own steam, when God took me by the hand, quieted my mind, and taught me to be still. He was calling me to trust in Him and Him alone. The search for my gifts became secondary to what God was teaching me; the true gift was to fully concentrate on my relationship with Him. I was developing the best kind of tenacious spirit; one that was going to depend completely on God and His grace, no matter what. It was not a spirit of doing, but of being and believing. He was refining me and teaching me to quietly listen, wait, hope, and commit to His will and His leading. There was no other way. Through prayer and reading His Holy Word, I developed a steadfastness in my walk with the Lord.

Chambers says, “Remain spiritually tenacious”, no matter what.