As I spend time reading the Psalms, I am quite struck by the fact that the psalmist knowingly or unknowingly teaches a fundamental lesson about not giving up: being tenacious. How do I see that, you ask? Simply from the repetition of the songs and the themes that they express. It is as though the psalmist never got tired of raising his concerns to the LORD whether it was for the same issue or a new issue. Indeed, being of the mindset that God was for him brought the psalmist to a place of trust and total surrender. The psalmist’s tenacity came as an effect of his devotion to the LORD. Because of his love for the LORD, he was tenacious in seeking the will of God first; tenacious in seeking the help of God; tenacious in seeking the presence of God; tenacious in obeying the LORD; tenacious in loving the LORD; tenacious in fearing the LORD. The more you read the psalms, the more you see that tenacity despite circumstances. I love that the book of Psalms has a song for most of life’s situations that we encounter in this world and that it was written for our edification. I love that we serve a God who did not just want to save us from our sins but wanted to make us whole and bring us into a state of abundance and total dependence on Him. My goal in this post is to remind us of our call to be tenacious as redeemed people.
When I hear the word tenacious, I think of strength mixed with the ability to not give up or to remain. I picture something that is immovable, fixed and no matter how hard you try to pull that thing apart it remains fixed. The greatest example of tenacity is found in the Lord Jesus who in the face of persecution, in the face of the cross, knowing full well what the journey would involve stayed the course. He did not deviate from the left or the right, but his eyes were always focused on Jerusalem, the place where he would eventually die for the whole world (Luke 9:51). Despite the many good distractions that came his way, Jesus was tenacious in his obedience to the Father. He remained focused on heaven’s agenda, fulfilling the prophecies that were written about him in the Book. People had other plans for him, but Jesus knew what plan he was to follow. Left to the people, Jesus would have been made king while he was on earth, one to save Israel from the Roman oppression but that was never his mission (John 6:14-15). While it would have been a good thing to save Israel from Roman’s oppression it was not what the Father had sent him to do on earth. In any case, Jesus was exemplary in being immovable and flawless in His obedience to the Father. He died on the cross so that those who believe in him, those who follow him will be able to live a tenacious life as well. Indeed, one of the gifts we receive from Jesus’ bloody sacrifice on the cross is the Spirit of God who now dwells in us. This same spirit teaches us about the mind of Christ, convicts us of our sins, causes us to worship the LORD rightly among other things. Therefore, commandments that we would strive to follow and obey in our own strength are now easier because we have someone that is showing us how to let go and follow His leading in obeying the commandments of God. We learn to do things not in our own strength but by the Spirit of God who dwells in us. Indeed, his commandments truly become light and his yoke easy as we relinquish our control and do not lean on our intelligence (Matthew 11:30; Proverbs 3:5). This then is the foundation to our tenacity: being led by the LORD, dying to self daily, and offering our bodies as living sacrifices to the LORD. We cannot be tenacious in our own strength, but we have to rely on the One who calls us to a tenacious life, the LORD Jesus. As new creatures, we walk not in accordance with the principles of the world and the flesh but in accordance with the principles of heaven. We are now ambassadors of Christ who distribute his aroma everywhere we go. Therefore, being imitators of Christ, we set our eyes on things above not on earthly things (Colossians 3:1).
If there is anything the Psalms teach us it is that we will always have need for God in this trouble filled life. We should never aspire to get to a place where we have no need of the LORD, our God. Like the psalmist, we should be quick to always cry out to the LORD, always call upon the name of the LORD, always praise and extol His name, always seek Him first, always seek to obey Him. If life’s problems or our insufficiency don’t bring us to God, the love of God should bring us to Him; His peace should cause us to thank Him and rejoice in Him; His goodness should stir our hearts to praise Him more; His blessings should draw us closer to loving Him more not the other way around. Therefore, our tenacity is to remain in Christ, it is to wait upon the LORD in obedience until He shows up; it is to keep trusting in Him. Our generation is a generation of laziness wrapped in “efficiency”. We love “quick fixes”, “working smarter not harder”, having the solution to our problems “now”, etc. all these simply show that we have a hard time trusting in the LORD. Indeed, we give up easily at the sign of any difficulty. As believers in Christ, we are not called to a life of lethargy or of giving up when it is hard, Christ died so that we would have life and life abundantly (John 10:10). We are called to a tenacious life, one that Paul describes as being filled with hardships, persecutions and pain yet rewarding. As Christians, we know that “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17).
So then, if you are in Christ, know that you have been called to a tenacious life and the good news is that you do not have to do it on your own, the Father, Son and Spirit are with you on this journey. Jesus has done it all for you already, you just need to follow his leading. Will you start to live a tenacious life in the faith today? Will you be tenacious in your pursuit of God? Be tenacious in your prayer? Be tenacious in scripture meditation and memory? Be tenacious in your obedience? The LORD is calling you to not give up, so go back to trying again, stay the course, do not give up or disqualify yourself from the prize (1 Corinthians 9:27). You and I are surrounded by the great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1), and they are cheering us to keep going and to remain in the faith. Like David, let us repeat the practice of calling upon the name of the LORD, let us run to Him for anything and everything. We are so privileged to call Him Abba, Father so let us act as the children we are. Amen.
A Word Aptly Spoken 