Thought for the week: Perseverance and persistence is important in the Christian life

benefit of only less than a year’s formal education, he became a lawyer. Conscious of the poverty in which he and many others like him were raised, he wanted to create a better society for the good of all.

So, he entered politics, setting his sights on the office, in which, if he could ever attain it, he knew that he could change things – President of the USA.

He tried and tried – and he failed and failed. He lost his job in 1832, failed in business the next year, then his fiancée died, and then he had a nervous break-down.

All seemed hopeless. But through sheer persistence and perseverance Abraham Lincoln, in 1860, became, and has gone down in history as, one of the most remembered and esteemed Presidents of the USA.

His persistence paid off. Many another would have given up, but he persevered. He did not allow set-backs to deflect him from his goal.

Yesterday, February 2, 40 days after Christmas, was a special day, The presentation of Christ in the Temple. In those days every first born child was to be dedicated to the Lord in the Temple in Jerusalem. St Luke records how an elderly man called Simeon, “righteous and devout”, was there for what must have been the greatest day of his life.

Simeon was able to take the Infant Jesus in his arms – thus fulfilling what had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit – that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.

He had waited all his life for that moment. Simeon was a man of perseverance, and his persistence bore fruit. There was also an old prophet, Anna, who was aged 84, and never left the Temple worshipping day and night.

Persistence, it could be claimed, is rather alien to our modern culture. We live in a fast moving society in which we want everything to happen instantly, and, if it doesn’t, we give up. We can, however, decide to be different. We don’t necessarily have to go with the flow.

Perseverance and persistence are still such important attributes for the follower of Jesus. Lifelong perseverance and persistence were rewarded for Simeon. That can be the case for us, too.

Faithfulness and patience in waiting upon God, in listening to, and abiding by, His word, in following the teaching of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was presented in the Temple, and, in living close to Him, will, like Simeon, bring us our reward in this life and in the life to come.