Mary Poppins Magic

Tonight at our deacons' meeting it was said: "Victory comes from the Lord, perseverance comes from you."

But perseverance isn't easy. In fact, sometimes it just downright sucks.

Whenever I watch Mary Poppins and the scene of her tidying the children's room with just a click of her fingers, I always wish I could do that. Imagine things just happened at the snap of our fingers! Wouldn't it be nice if we could buy a 'get fit fast' package or take a pill to magically gain a six pack. If we could click a button and instantly know a new skill or language or be filled with endless knowledge; a magic word that would break our bad habits If we could snap our fingers at the hard times, and they'd disappear back into the wardrobe. 

Trying to get fit. Losing weight. Learning a new skill. Mastering an art. Breaking an addiction. Saving money. Gaining knowledge. Renovating your house. Learning a language. Loving people. All these things require time and effort and, yip, perseverance.

Sometimes I so want God to just make my struggles disappear. I want him to pull out a magic Mary Poppins wand and cause my problems and things that require effort to vanish into thin air. And Luke 1:37 says nothing is impossible for him, so he totally can!

But that doesn’t mean he will. His plan is so much greater than that. His ways are so much higher than mine.

2 Peter 3:9 says that our God is incredibly patient. Whether we like it or not, that means he probably won’t use quick fixes for our problems. Quick fixes don’t lead to permanent solutions; they just lead to more future problems. If he simply resolved my issues, I wouldn’t learn anything from them, grow closer to him, or develop endurance and the ability to persevere.

"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:3-5

We won't properly know hope if we don't persevere through difficult experiences. Hebrews 10:36 says that perseverance comes with a promise, God's promise.

But maybe you haven’t noticed many promises or miracles in your life. Maybe you’ve been praying for decades about a certain issue and still haven’t seen God work. Maybe you feel like God is being silent and distant.

There is still hope for you.

Romans 8:28 "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."

We know the first verse so well, but we don’t always hear the second on. It's just as important because it shows us how God shapes his people to become like his perfect Son Jesus when they trust in him. God wants to mould us into his image and he so often uses difficult circumstances and the dark times to accomplish that.

But moulding and shaping takes time.

An artist can’t make beautiful artwork appear out of thin air. It takes time to create art and transform it into a masterpiece. We will only become masterpieces over time. But if we remain in his hands, in his time, masterpieces we shall be. Because although we are tempted daily to give up, our God will always persevere in his love for and transformation of us.

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” Philippians 1:6

For me, knowing that Jesus not only persevered on the cross for me, but every day loves me and leads me in perseverance -- that encourages me to keep going, keep fighting, keep putting one foot in front of the other in this marathon race of life. I stop clicking my fingers at things to make them happen. Instead I faithfully and consistently do the things that I've been called to; little by little and step by step.

I persevere and I trust in my perfectly persevering God for the victory.