Bible verses about perseverance, for the long road

Do not grow weary

Paul's word to the Galatians is simple. Do not be weary in doing good. He knew that people get tired. The promise that follows says that a harvest comes in due season, but only if we do not give up.

A season is a different thing from a day. If you have been clean for a week and still feel it is not working, remember that a crop does not show in the first week, and planting it was still real work.

Trials build steadiness

James opens his letter with a strange instruction: count it all joy when you fall into various trials. The reason is that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and endurance should have its perfect work so that you may be complete. Elsewhere he says the person who endures temptation is blessed, and will receive the crown of life.

He does not say trials are pleasant. He says they are not wasted. A hard week of resisting is building something in you, even when you cannot see it.

• At the end of a hard day, write down one thing you did not do.

Keep your eyes on Jesus

Hebrews 12 pictures a race with a cloud of witnesses around it. Lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles, and run with patience, looking to Jesus. Notice the pairing: you lay things down, and you look up.

A little later the writer says to consider him who endured so much hostility, so that you do not grow weary and lose heart. The way to keep going is to keep looking at the one who went before you.

Keep praying and keep going

Jesus told his disciples a parable to show that they must always pray and not give up. He also described seed that fell on good soil: people who hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience. Patience is the word the passage chooses.

Hebrews 10 says you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive the promise. And Colossians 1 prays that believers be strengthened with all power for all endurance and perseverance with joy.

On the days when keeping going is all you can do, keep going in small units. Pray through this hour. Put the phone in another room tonight. Read one verse in the morning. Long perseverance is made of many short ones, and each short one is counted by a God who sees what is done in secret.

Your work matters

Paul ends his great chapter on the resurrection with a sentence for the long run: be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord's work, because your labor is not in vain in the Lord. The reason to keep going is that it counts.

Every prayer you pray in the hard minute, every time you put down the phone, every verse you read, is labor in the Lord. None of it is lost.

• Mark a clean day as work done, not just time passed.

A prayer to say with these verses

Father, I am tired and the road is long. Give me endurance. Help me to look to Jesus and to keep praying when I do not feel strong. Let me be steady and not wasted. Hold me up on the slow days. Amen.