Persevering Power
Introduction
Last year, I had the opportunity to serve as a consultant at the Christian Community Development Association’s (CCDA) National Conference. That means I spent many hours with leaders, helping them work through the challenges they faced back home. These conversations often started off talking about organizational challenges but slowly turned to deeper discussions of their inner lives. As leaders, especially spiritual leaders, everything we do flows out of our being with God, and our being with God is more important than what we do for God.
As I spoke to these leaders, I could see how many of them got caught in the trap of doing for God and had made the mistake of not taking enough time to be with God. This practice leaves us spiritually dry and seeking to lead and serve from our natural strength and resources. While I know a lot of naturally gifted leaders, none of us have sufficient strength to do the work that God has given us outside of Him.
Listen to the words of Jesus as He reminds us of this truth:
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener… 4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.” (John 15:1, 4-5, CSB).
Jesus tells us that apart from Him, we can do nothing, and yet we try repeatedly to lead and live out of our strength.
While at the CCDA Conference, I didn’t have the opportunity to attend many breakout sessions. However, I tried to strategically pick out a couple of sessions that stood out to me the most and prioritize going to those. One of the sessions I chose was Persevering Power, led by Bruce D. Strom. Something about this session jumped out at me, and I knew I NEEDED to attend it.
After a long afternoon of meetings, I stumbled hungrily and tiredly into the session half-awake. As Bruce and his wife Helen stood at the front and began teaching, I knew I was in the right place.
You see, Bruce is a lawyer who felt called to sell his law firm and start a Christian legal services ministry called Administering Justice. This ministry helps mobilize churches, volunteers, and lawyers to serve those who can’t afford or access quality legal services.
While he and his wife have built an incredible ministry over the last 25 years, that wasn’t what stood out to me the most. What stood out about their story was their honesty, love for God, failures, and lessons they learned along the way that they put into Bruce’s book Persevering Power: Encouragement For When You’re Oppressed By Life.
“We cannot give what we do not possess. We can only give what we do possess.”
~ Pete Scazzero
Bruce captures the heart and journey of leadership and our Christian life and puts it into a simple framework to help us become better at not only doing for God but also being with God, living wholly, and serving freely. It is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time, and I decided to share the insights that I learned from it with you!
So, over the next four weeks, I will write a piece per week using Bruce’s framework of:
Looking Up
Looking Back
Looking In
Looking Around
First, Bruce encourages us to Look Up to God, get His perspective, and find our purpose. Second, Bruce tells us we must Look Back to better understand the past and praise God for where He has brought us from. Third, Bruce reminds us to take time to Look In, pursue peace, and set aside our pride so that we can do the work of looking around. Finally, Bruce tells us to Look Around at the people that God loves and learn to steward provision and serve people.
We all need to learn what it means to persevere in life and in what God has given us to do. As we journey through this series together, let’s be honest with one another about how we have fallen short in the past and how we are now learning to persevere. I look forward to sharing my journey of perseverance with you all and where it has led me.