It's not just a birthright, it's something that others struggled for, strived for, often suffered for, often were defeated for and died for, for us, for the next generation.... We've got to teach history and nurture history and encourage history because it's an antidote to the hubris of the present - the idea that everything we have and everything we do and everything we think is the ultimate, the best. ... Samuel Eliot Morison said we ought to read history because it will help us behave better.

It does.... There's a line in one of the letters written by John Adams where he's telling his wife Abigail at home, 'We can't guarantee success in this war, but we can do something better. We can deserve it.' That line in the Adams letter is saying that how the war turns out is in the hands of God. We can't control that, but we can control how we behave. We can deserve success."

In his graphic description of the battles of the War of American Independence of 1776, David McCullough, in his latest book entitled 1776 concludes with these words,

"From the last week of August to the last week of December, the year 1776 had been as dark a time as those devoted to the American cause had ever known - indeed, as dark a time as any in the history of the country. And suddenly, miraculously it seemed, that had changed because of a small band of determined men and their leader."

In the battles of Trenton and Princeton, George Washington gave evidence that, in the face of overwhelming odds, he would not give up. This is what McCullough says of Washington.

"He was not a brilliant strategist or tactician, not a gifted orator, not an intellectual. At several crucial moments he had shown marked indecisiveness. He had made serious mistakes in judgment. But experience had been his great teacher from boyhood, and in this his greatest test, he learned steadily from experience. Above all, Washington never forgot what was at stake and he never gave up.

"Again and again, in letters to Congress and to his officers, and in his general orders, he called for perseverance - 'for perseverance and spirit,' for 'patience and perseverance,' for 'unremitting courage and perseverance.' Soon after the victories of Trenton and Princeton, he had written: 'A people unused to restraint must be led, they will not be drove.' Without Washington's leadership and unrelenting perseverance, the revolution almost certainly would have failed. As Nathanael Greene foresaw as the war went on, 'He will be the deliverer of his own country." (pp.293,294)

Perseverance, never giving up, controlling how we behave. deserving of success is one of the lessons we can learn from George Washington and the other Founders. The Ephesian Christians are commended by Christ: "I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance...... You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary." (Revelation 2:2,3)

William Barclay describes this virtue: "It is the spirit which can bear things, not simply with resignation, but with blazing hope; it is not the spirit which sits statically enduring in one place, but the spirit which bears all things because it knows that these things are leading to a goal of glory; it is not the patience which grimly waits for the end, but the patience which radiantly hopes for the dawn. It has been called 'a masculine constancy under trial'... It is the quality which keeps a man on his feet with his face to the wind. It is the virtue which can transmute the hardest trial into glory because beyond the pain it sees the goal." (New Testament Words, pp.144,145)

Today we are afflicted with the desire for instant results. We want medications and medical treatments that work miracles in a short time. We want businesses that turn a profit in the first year. We expect instant landscaping, with turf laid, and trees already full grown.

When we go on the internet we do not want to be kept waiting for results to our searches. Webpages whose graphics take too long to do irritate us. Employees who don't produce and pay their way are not retained. Marriages that aren't always rewarding don't endure. Patience is in short supply. Wars that are not won with little cost in a short time are derided. How would George Washington have fared in today's media? It took him until 1781 at Yorktown (6 years after assuming command of the army), to be vindicated.

Perseverance in anything requires self-discipline and courage. It means being so determined to reach the goal that you are prepared to carry on until that goal is reached, even if it takes you years and much suffering to achieve it. Therefore difficulties are to be expected and not feared.

"You know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything....As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy." (James 1:3,4; 5:11)

Perseverance leads to maturity. Those who persevere are blessed. You can see in Job what the Lord finally brought about through his perseverance. In his compassion and mercy God uses the trials of our lives to bring about his purposes.

But where do we find the strength, the courage, the endurance, the patience, to persevere? It is the fruit of the Spirit. It is the result of the grace of God in our lives. It is the response to knowing that God will not give up on you, and therefore you cannot give up on what you have been given to do in life.

Oswald Chambers calls it tenacity. "Tenacity is more than endurance, it is endurance combined with the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire. Tenacity is more than hanging on, which may be the weakness of being too afraid to fall off. Tenacity is the supreme effort of a man refusing to believe that his hero is going to be conquered. .... If our hopes are being disappointed 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 strains in life is waiting for God.. Remain spiritually tenacious." (My Utmost for His Highest, February 22nd.)

The study of history teaches us that it is the men or women who persevere in their purpose in life who finish strong. More has been accomplished by those who drew strength from heaven to do God's will than those who tried to do it in their own strength for their own glory. Those who persevere to the end will be saved. What is it that you need to persevere in? Seek the strength of Christ to do it.

Amelia Plantation Chapel
Amelia Island, Florida