Summer Sampler: Persevering in a Troubling and Ever-Changing World
This year’s Summer Sampler theme is “Persevering in a Troubling and Ever-Changing World.” Life can be hard. Sometimes, really hard. How do we persevere through circumstances that threaten to break us? This summer, journey with some women who have been through it and have come out the other side with a deeper faith and confidence in God’s love.
By Jasmine Fiandaca
The dictionary definition for the word “perseverance” says this: continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition : the action or condition or an instance of persevering : STEADFASTNESS.
Perseverance is a word that I don’t necessarily enjoy talking or thinking about. Like, who wants to persevere when things are messy and hard? Why would I sign up to struggle in my marriage and ministry and continue when it seems so much easier to choose an easier path?
As Christians, we know perseverance is vital to growing in our faith; that’s why we keep going. God wants His people to persevere no matter what happens.We have to learn how to overcome obstacles, difficulties, trials, and tribulations to experience victory in Christ! It’s all part of the sanctification process. We have two choices when faced with hardship: trust in God and keep our eyes on Him, or quit and abandon hope. God has so much more in store for us, and His plan is for our struggles and hardships to become blessings and rewards if we persevere!
Some of my favorite verses about perseverance are found in the New Testament, but one of my favorite characters in the Bible is found in the Old Testament. My hero, Moses! Think about his life. From the start, his mother had to trust God as she laid him in a basket she put in the river due to Pharaoh demanding every Hebrew male child be put to death. As God would have it, the Pharaoh’s daughter sees him and takes pity. She takes him in and raises him in the Egyptian palace. He grows up and is trained in Pharaoh’s court, becoming “mighty in words and deeds” (Acts 7:22). Around the age of 40, Moses flees Egypt to escape punishment for killing an Egyptian taskmaster who wrongly beat and killed a Hebrew slave. His journey takes him to Midian, where he ends up working for a man named Jethro. He soon marries Jethro’s daughter. After he spends 40 years as a herdsman, God commissions him, through a burning bush, to free the children of Israel from their Egyptian bondage.
Perseverance has been taking place all along in Moses’ life, but this is where the heat gets turned up. Moses returns to Egypt with his brother, Aaron, who acts as his spokesman. Their confrontations with a new Pharaoh lead to 10 plagues. The Exodus occurs when the Israelites leave Egypt. Moses then spends the last 40 years of his life serving God and governing the people. After the children of Israel show a lack of faith and perseverance to enter their inherited land, God judges them unfit to receive this blessing and has them wander the wilderness for 40 years. Moses died at the age of 120. Joshua, his second in command, led the Israelites into the Promised Land. After all Moses did for those 40 years with the grumbling and ungrateful Israelites, his own sin keeps him from entering into the land flowing with milk and honey. In anger, he hit the rock twice when all he was supposed to do was speak to it. (Numbers 20:12-13) OUCH! That must have stung. Sometimes, our sin keeps us from God’s best. We don’t persevere and finish well due to our disobedience.
This has been true of my own life as well. Like Moses, I have responded in anger and frustration at the people I am leading. My disobedience has caused wounds on my children’s hearts. Raising children in today’s culture is nothing short of a battlefield. We are facing a war – not with the Amalekites, but with the world in general. There seems to be a constant pull for my growing kids’ attention – from the entertainment industry to fashion, social media, and friends that don’t honor Christ. I am always trying to shield and protect them, but I grow weary and then I end up wounding them in the process. Perseverance isn’t made complete because I try to do it in my own strength. Can you relate?
Together, let’s press into perseverance and the promises found in God’s Word.
“And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Romans 5:3-5
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9
Now all of a sudden those tribulations don’t seem so hopeless. With Christ, I can keep fighting the good fight, and I hope you do too.
As a survivor of sex trafficking and drug addiction, Jasmine Fiandaca is an effective keynote speaker, panel participant, and facilitator for trainings, workshops, and groups. She has spoken on panels at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in New Hampshire and on two side panels for members of the United Nations in New York. She has also been featured on The 700 Club and many other online news sources. In addition, Jasmine consults with healthcare professionals, law enforcement personnel, educators, and nonprofit organizations.
She advises on issues such as safe homes, program growth, curriculum development, survivor support, and peer mentorship. Jasmine is also the founder and director of Jasmine Grace Outreach (https://www.jasminegrace.org/). JGO empowers women as they exit and recover from the commercial sex trade and addiction. Lastly, she is the author of The Diary of Jasmine Grace. Trafficked. Recovered. Redeemed.
Silent survivors, justice seekers, and direct service providers are talking about Jasmine’s story of survival, faith, and victory. People who were previously uneducated about human trafficking have chosen to support her efforts as a modern-day abolitionist because sex should never be called work.