Persevering Together

December 11, 2015 | By Chuck

I recently had a phone conversation with a good preacher friend of mine. We attended school and graduated together so we've known each other for a while. Unfortunately, with our schedules we don't talk as often as I'd like so I truly enjoyed his phone call and our time to catch up. He said something to me that really impressed me and challenged me. He mentioned that he had been with his congregation for fifteen years. That alone is pretty special but what really impressed me was his next statement. He said, we've had our problems and I've had opportunities to leave but I figure every church has its problems so we decided to work through everything and stick it out. I was so challenged with my friend's simple truth. Of course every congregation has its problems. Every marriage has its ups and downs. Every family has their issues. Every relationship has its disagreements. Every job has its negatives. We have to learn to do what Paul taught and what my friend did and that is persevere together. "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."(Col.3:13) I want to focus on the first four words of that verse, "bear with each other." This concept of bearing with each other means we're going to persevere together no matter what. Not every situation or circumstance is ideal and it's at those difficult and uncomfortable times that we're tempted to flee. Instead of moving on we need to learn to bear with each other and persevere together.