7 Principles for Biblical Perseverance

[These are some of the notes from my recent message at the 2025 Florida Regional Grace Conference. -Joel]

Eph 6:18. “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.”

This is the one and only time Paul mentions perseverance.

Paul never really defines watching, which suggests to me that he’s highlighting a timeless principle. He means watching in the same sense watching is used everywhere else in Scripture.

In Matt. 24:42-46, the Lord defines watching in His Olivet Discourse. He talks about them watching during the Tribulation. It’s not like they have to spend all seven years looking up at the sky. By watching He means the Jews are to think of themselves as servants in the Master’s house and the Master has gone away on a long journey. But He may come back anytime. So they are watching while He is gone. Watching is more than just being alert. They are making way for His return by keeping themselves pure. They are making way for His return by keeping themselves focused upon all the instructions He gave them. They are focused upon their obedience to His Word. Despite all the crazy stuff going on around them for seven years, they are focused on doing what the Lord told them to do. Why? Because He’s coming back! And they know that when He comes back, He will be inspecting their works. And they want him to be pleased because He will be rewarding them.

I think Paul means watch in a similar sense. You are all now servants in the Master’s Grace House. You are focused upon your service to God because you know the Rapture may happen any moment. And when the Rapture happens, you know He will be inspecting your works at the Bema Seat, just as He will with Israel at His Second Coming.

Essentially, watching means you are focused upon your service to God because you know the Rapture may happen any moment. And when the Rapture happens, you know He will be inspecting your works at the Bema Seat, just as He will with Israel at His Second Coming.

So the watching, all that service to God in anticipation of His return, is to be done with ALL perseverance. You watch with perseverance. You serve God with every ounce of determined dedication you possess. This is you choosing to excel in your service in every detail. You are zealous. You are completely dedicated to studying His Word and serving your Savior. You are completely focused on what God tells you to do in Paul’s epistles. You are completely committed to doing what God tells you to do.

Your spiritual life isn’t some side hobby. If you think about it, you might do half-measures. Like the Laodicean church – neither hot nor cold. (Or like somebody who drinks half-calf coffee. That person’s probably got some commitment issues. Right?) This is about your full commitment – you being resolute in your determination to serve God faithfully every single day of your life. Not only that, Paul says you’re watching with ALL perseverance. He doesn’t say you’re watching with a little bit of perseverance. He says with ALL perseverance. Every fiber of your being is dedicated to serving God all the days of your life. And that’s how Webster defines perseverance. It’s your “Persistence in anything undertaken.” So when Paul says ALL perseverance, he means your unwavering determination to serve to God every single day of your life…

So I would like to offer you 7 principles for Biblical Perseverance.

#1 – Perseverance Requires Patience

I have a brilliant illustration for perseverance. It’s all about our Alex Kurz. I wanted Alex on the podcast. I went through the same thing Des did! I said, “Alex, come on the podcast!” Alex said, “Oh no, no, no, no, no.” I was like, “Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes.” Alex was like, “Oh no, no, no, no, no.”  So what did I do? I persevered. I gently harassed Alex for months until he finally caved in and gave me what I wanted. I persevered. Do you know what I learned about perseverance? I learned that perseverance requires patience. My wife is like, “Yeah, and Alex had to learn a lot of patience, too!”

#2 – Know the Source of Your Power to Persevere

I read a few “inspiring” stories about perseverance. Usually, the person who persevered and found success would usually say something like, “You just need to trust yourself, trust your vision, and never give up!” When it comes to Biblical perseverance, you don’t need to trust any of that. You need only trust in His Word! And trust in the fact that God’s gift of grace has already empowered you to persevere.

2 Cor. 12:7. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 12:8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 12:10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

I suspect most of our readers know these verses really well. Paul had a messenger of Satan buffeting him. He begged the Lord three times to have it removed. The Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Paul went through the same learning curve we all go through. We want the Lord to remove our problems, but the Lord wants us to appropriate the empowering grace He’s already given us.

Here’s my question to you:what did the Lord mean when He said, “My grace”? That is the source of your power. So what is My grace? I’d suggest it’s everything that’s Pauline. It’s every blessing that comes with God’s gift of grace.

Eph 3:7 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.

Paul was not made a minister because he was special. How was he made a minister? By receiving the gift of the grace of God, the same gift of the grace of God we all received! And how was that gift given to him? “By the effectual working of his power.” He was transformed into a new creature through the power of God when he got saved and received God’s gift of grace. That gift transformed him. That gift empowered him. That gift was how Paul became the great apostle we know him to be, how he was able to excel at serving the Lord, and how he had the sufficiency, he had the inner strength, to persevere with joy. God didn’t give Paul special abilities. Paul was equipped to excel because he was given that same gift of grace we’re all given. So at the heart of Eph. 3:7 is Paul reckoning as true the spiritual transformation God already accomplished in him through His gift of grace. Paul excelled in all that he did simply because he made the most use out of everything God already made him in Christ through that powerful gift of grace.

So, My grace, first of all, has to be everything God accomplished for you at Calvary – the all-sufficiency of His payment for all your sins. You have every sin forgiven. You have eternal life that can never be lost. You are forever accepted in the beloved, victorious over sin and death, and you have every reason to abound in hope and joy anticipating all the glory to come.

Plus, My grace includes everything God made you in His Son. You’re dead, buried, and risen with Christ. You’re a new creature, behold all things new. The old man is D.E.A.D. dead! Your sins are forever buried, and you are now risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead (Col. 2:12). You’re identified with Christ in His victory for you at Calvary… This is also about your freedom from the law, your blessed hope, you already seated in heavenly places in Christ, you having the completed Word to feed your souls, and you have direct access to the Father when you pray.

I’d suggest that My grace is every blessing that comes with the gift of the grace of God.  My grace is every doctrine that is distinctly Pauline for you today. Plus, I think My grace is also just the richness of this grace life you already have in Christ, the joy that comes from exhibiting His attributes in your life, the satisfaction of living a life of grace and love. This is why we often say on the podcast, that His grace life is the greatest life you can live today. There is no greater life to be found on planet earth today.

Then He says, My grace is sufficient for thee. What does he mean by sufficient? We know that Webster says, “sufficient is to be equipped to the end.” Adequate to satisfy all needs. In other words, you possess all the adequate provisions necessary to persevere. You are equipped. John MacArthur, the Calvinist, would say of this verse, “The present tense of the verb translated ‘is sufficient’ reveals the constant availability of divine grace.” Absolutely not. This is not about your dependency upon God to give you more grace. This is about the sufficiency of the grace He’s already given you. The all-atoning work of Christ at Calvary for your sins, everything God made you in Christ, every spiritual blessing you already have – ALL OF THAT – is sufficient to empower you through all suffering.

#3 – Appropriate the Power You Already Have

In 2 Cor 12:9 the Lord says to Paul, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Notice the two times the Lord says “My.” He talks about “My grace” and “my strength.” The two are intimately tied together. You cannot have one without the other. His strength is found in His grace and His grace becomes your strength. I guess here I’ll quickly tear apart the Calvinist doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints. In 2 Cor. 12, could it not be more obvious that perseverance isn’t something God makes you do according to the faith He gives you? Perseverance is something God wants to see in you because you’re appropriating all the power and blessings He has already given you!

Again, my question to you is how do you define my strength? What is it? How does it work? I can’t help but also think of Eph 3:16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. His strength is internal. His strength is spiritual. When Paul says to be strengthened he means he wants you to be made stronger. Your inner man is made stronger by His Spirit when you spend time in His Word. So what is my strength exactly? We think of strength as big muscles, lots of energy, being able to lift heavy things. God’s strength in you is not physical. It’s spiritual. It’s the power of truth, the power of hope, the power of love, the power of His grace working through you. It is manifesting God’s very attributes in your walk. All of that is strength that can carry you through the hard times.

Take for example, the concept of comfort.

Paul mentions comfort in Col. 2. His prayer for people who haven’t met him yet is that Col 2:2 …their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ... So if you never met Paul, then he wants your heart to be comforted by the sound doctrines of grace. A comforted heart is certainly a heart that has been relieved from pain, it’s encouraged, it’s been given some hope. But Webster makes the point that comfort is more than just relief from pain. Comfort is a strengthening of the heart. So a heart that feels endless anxiety, crippling depression, hopeless anguish – that heart gets weakened by all of that emotional strain. But a heart that’s comforted by hope, comforted by God’s love, and grace, and peace, that heart becomes strengthened. Comfort of the heart is power inside of you. So when you persevere and you study the Word, you are comforted by hope and that comfort is a strengthening of your heart. You can now persevere because you have a strengthened heart that has been comforted by the power of truth and the power of hope inside of you. The heart that rests upon the truths of God is not weakened by pain. That heart is made strong because it’s invigorated by hope, and that hope is Christ in you.

If comfort is a strengthening of the heart, then joy is the heart on steroids. LOL

Here’s another example. Peace. In Phil. 4:7, Paul tells us “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

First, how do you get this peace? I’d say you do everything Paul says to do in the previous verses. I think the context goes back to at least vs. 4. Look at Php 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Rejoicing isn’t just something you feel. It’s something you DO. Because you feel all this exhilarating gladness to a high degree, you celebrate! You rejoice! You vocalize your joy and praise to God! Then in vs. 5, he says Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. We’re to practice moderation. We should be free from the tempers and passions of the flesh – gentle, meek, patient. Why? Because the Lord is at hand! The Rapture also functions as motivation to serve God. In vs. Php 4:6, he says, Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Be careful for nothing. Be anxious for nothing. Do not worry. There’s another call to prayer. So if you do ALL THESE THINGS, you rejoice, you practice moderation, you’re not worrying about stuff, you’re in prayer and expressing thanksgiving to God, if you do ALL THESE THINGS the peace of God… shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Do you know what peace is? Peace is freedom. Peace is freedom from anxiety.

When Paul says the peace OF God, he means that God’s peace has become your peace. That peace God feels is coming alive in you. You’re feeling some of that peace God feels. Notice Paul says the peace of God… shall KEEP your hearts and minds. His peace is designed to protect your hearts and minds. Peace protects you. God’s peace protects your hearts and minds. God’s peace guards your heart and your mind. Webster says peace is freedom, but God’s peace is also the great protector of your heart and mind. Do you see what’s going on? When God’s own attributes come alive in you, that is supreme inner strength designed to empower you to persevere and do it with joy.

#4 – Charity Perseveres Through Everything

In 1 Cor. 13, Paul lists the attributes of charity. From vs. 4-8, you have roughly 15-16 attributes of agape. Look at vs. 7. Charity 1Co 13:7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

What’s the difference between Beareth all things and endureth all things? Let’s start with beareth all things. Charity, or agape, is the strength that can bear the weight of all burdens. Love is its own form of supreme inner power. Love with real depth to it, true charity, that agape charity springs from the life of Christ inside of you. That love comes alive, that love takes form and becomes perfected when you study His Word. When you study, your inner man is strengthened, and His own attributes come alive in you, those attributes are your inner strength. And charity is one of the most powerful inner strengths you can have, because charity can bear the weight, the burden, of ALL THINGS.

Then Paul says in that verse that charity also endureth all things. The love of God that’s alive in you has the power to endure ALL things. Not some things. ALL THINGS. Charity is power. Love is power. Love has the strength to bear the weight of all things. But here, love endureth all things. Love maintains consistency through all suffering. Love never loses its power. Love never stops loving no matter how bad the circumstances get. Even though love has all strength to bear all things, even though love can suffer long, love keeps on loving at the same level all the way to the end of your life. The power of love can carry you through the storms of life, because love itself can suffer long, love itself can bear everything, and love maintains consistency in its power through everything.

And so we come full circle. What is God’s strength made perfect in you? Having His personal attributes alive in you: His peace, His love, His grace, His joy, His hope – those are all inner strengths made perfect for you when you are in times of weakness. God’s personal attributes strengthen you, protect you, and keep you in a state of love even through hard times. How is it that His strength is made perfect? Because God designed the grace life in such a way that His attributes makes for the perfect strength inside of you. The perfection of His attributes were designed to be your inner strength. He designed His own inner strengths to be your perfect inner strength. You are perfected by having His life and qualities.

Plus, God’s inner strengths are pure, unfiltered. Take hope, for example. The hope you feel isn’t weak because you have to worry about losing your salvation. The hope you feel is perfect. You can’t make it better. Your hope is guaranteed. It’s pure. It’s undiluted. And all the comfort and joy and peace that springs from His hope becomes your inner strength. You have the excellency of the power of hope inside of you, because you cannot have a greater hope than the one God has already given you. This is why Paul would write in 2 Cor 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We do not simply possess the power of truth inside of us. We possess the excellency of the power of truth inside of us. You can’t know more powerful truths than what God tells you in His Word. There power in those truths, because believing those truths brings you inner strength. God’s attributes is the greatest form of inner strength you can possess. You can’t make God’s hope any greater than it is. You can’t make His love any greater than it is. You can’t find greater protection of your heart and mind than the perfect peace of God Himself comes alive when you study. And I have to say, how much more glorious and intimate can our relationship to God be than to feel everything He feels?

#5 – Perseverance Embraces Challenges

I say this because of Paul’s reaction to the Lord in vs. 9, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Because of the greatness of that power in God’s gift of grace, Paul openly welcomed all suffering in life. And how to people see the power of Christ at work in you? When you’re glorying in your infirmities.

Embrace the challenges. Is it not so much better to know that you’re empowered by His grace to go through that storm than it is to be unempowered waiting for God to take the storm away from you? What’s the greater gift? Taking the storm away or empowering you by His grace so you can go through the storm with God? How do you experience God more? Do you experience God more by watching Him take away the storm or by feeling His power at work inside of you when you and God go through the storm together? His strength can be found in His grace and His grace can become your strength. When you’re weak, you can learn to rely on His inner strengths, His attributes, His peace, hope, love, grace, allowing His life, to be your inner strength to carry you all the way to the end.

#6 – Perseverance by the Word

This brings us full circle back to where we started – Perseverance by the Word. His Word sustains you through life. His Word strengthens your inner man because His Word makes His attributes come alive in you! Like Paul, you will come to recognize that you are empowered to persevere with joy every single minute of your life. And how do you study the Word? 2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. This brings us to the final point.

#7 – In the Grace Life, You are Never Out of the Race

Perseverance also means you WILL NOT allow yourself to be sidelined by your own failures. The very nature of perseverance is that you are capable of accepting failure and keep moving forward. I think this is totally Pauline. I’m reminded of Php 3:13 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.” The very nature of this whole victory program by His grace means that you can put your mistakes behind you. You keep moving forward looking up. If you’re running that race and you trip up and you fall flat on your face, what do you do? You get back on your feet and you keep on running. You are never out of the race. You do not stop. You do not give up. You do not look back. You keep on running. You keep pressing onward for the prize! Because this race ain’t over until you are face-to-face with God!

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Gal. 6:9) 

[Join Joel on his Grace Life Podcast or read his book Empowered by His Grace! PTL!]