Perseverance, Character and Hope

Do you remember the story of the "tortoise and the hare"?
One day a hare saw a tortoise walking slowly along and began to laugh and mock him. The hare challenged the tortoise to a race and the tortoise accepted. They agreed on a route and started off the race. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise, plodding on, overtook him and finished the race. The hare woke up and realized that he had lost the race.

If you read this story you will often be reminded of the moral of the story, "Slow and steady wins the race." This may be the case but I look at this story in a different way. The Bible says in Romans 5 : 1-5 (niv)Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." The tortoise had to overcome some obstacles in the way if he was going to be the victor in this race against the hare. The tortoise new that he was the slower one of the two so he had to persevere no matter this circumstance. When he decided to persevere the end result was that he was building character that was different than that of the hare. The hare was being foolish in his commitment to this race and allowing himself to be distracted along the way. I like to look at it this way, I like to believe that the tortoise from the very beginning had hope that he would finish the race and in his perseverance his character got him to the finish line.

We have to have the same perseverance in our daily lives that we live. We will be faced with challenges, circumstances beyond our control, sicknesses, doubts, frustrations, etc... But can I tell you the good news about all that? We can be the victor's by persevering till the end and in our persevering, as the scriptures said, we will have a hope that is beyond anything earthly. Listen to the Holy Spirit in your life today and allow Him to build your character.

My prayer for us today is that we will be concerned with our character. Is God pleased with me? This is a good question to ask yourself and I think that the answer lies in our perseverance, character and hope.