{"id":35226,"date":"2023-04-07T03:30:41","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T10:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=35226"},"modified":"2023-03-30T17:49:24","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T00:49:24","slug":"april-7-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2023\/04\/07\/april-7-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"April 7, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"\"<\/h2>\n

Persevere<\/strong><\/h2>\n

“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”<\/em>\u00a0James 1:12<\/p>\n

The last few days the words enduring<\/strong> and perseverance<\/strong> have been in my thoughts almost constantly.\u00a0I looked up their definitions.\u00a0Enduring<\/strong> is to last over a long period of time<\/em>. Perseverance<\/strong> is to continue in spite of difficulty or delay<\/em>. I guess I can relate to both! It’s easy in a time of prayer or worship to commit to persevering\u2014but the day-to-day reality of it is something very different.<\/p>\n

I’m coming up to nine years of battling cancer.\u00a0And 20 months after I began that journey, Floyd was struck down and began his long silent journey.\u00a0I remember standing by his bed in ICU on day three praying with him just before the doctor was going to do a procedure to slow his heart that was beating much too fast. We committed our lives and the future into God’s hands.<\/p>\n

The doctor told me that the treatment might affect Floyd in an unusual way for some hours.\u00a0He was right!\u00a0Floyd started talking about things that made no sense.\u00a0April, a dear ICU nurse, was with me at Floyd’s bed while he explained that our 50th wedding anniversary was the next year. To celebrate, we were going on a round-the-world trip to 50 countries!\u00a0That sounded like an absolute nightmare to me, but Floyd was very excited and continued to talk about it.\u00a0That was my last conversation with him.\u00a0I guess he was a visionary as long as he had a voice to speak.<\/p>\n

A few hours later, his heart stopped.\u00a0He was then in a coma\u2014and then silent, never to speak again.\u00a0I then began a journey of enduring, persevering, through each day, sometimes through just the next hour. It was intense as his organs began to shut down, and various things attacked his body. I remember reading this quote: “When you feel like you’re drowning in life, don’t worry.\u00a0Your lifeguard walks on water.”\u00a0I clung to that lifeguard minute by minute.\u00a0And have continued to do so as I cared for Floyd and continued my cancer battle.\u00a0There were definitely moments when I felt like I was drowning, but Jesus held my hand and kept me afloat.<\/p>\n

I’ve never been a quitter.\u00a0When I start something, I always wanted to finish it\u2014be it something big or small.\u00a0But enduring and persevering through these last years has seemed impossible at times.\u00a0But God! His Word has strengthened and encouraged me time and time again!\u00a0Oh, how precious is the Word of God!<\/p>\n

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer”\u00a0<\/em>(Romans 12:12).<\/p>\n

There is strength to be found in reading His word\u2014clinging to it\u2014as we walk through a difficult time.\u00a0His word and His presence with us, holding our right hand, will get us through!<\/p>\n

“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.”\u00a0I have faced countless short races, and I continue to do so.\u00a0God’s grace, strength, love, wisdom, and help have gotten me through. He has helped me to endure and persevere\u2014and He will help you too!<\/p>\n

Lord, help us to endure hardship and suffering, persevering until You declare the trial is finished\u2014when You have done all the work You intended.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-9aa","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35226"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35228,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35226\/revisions\/35228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}