“What could God do in this generation today if just a couple more people decided that they were going to stick their commitment all the way through?”
When things get tough, we’re all tempted to go in search of something else – something easier, something faster, something that doesn’t demand quite so much of our energy. The result is a culture of quitters.
Nicki Koziarz of Proverbs 31 ministries describes herself as the Queen of Quitting. She took a personal challenge to focus on commitments and strengthen her resolve by studying the book of Ruth. In her new book , Nicki shares what she learned – perseverance is a process.
“I think sometimes we tend to think, ‘One day I am going to arrive at this place where I have faith.’ But the reality is, it’s a constant process. It’s from faith to faith to faith. It doesn’t have a start and stopping point.”
Nicki walks through some of the habits she picked up from Ruth:
- A non-quitter accepts her assignment of refinement.
- A non-quitter sticks to her commitments even when she doesn’t feel like it.
- A non-quitter is emotionally generous.
Ruth persevered, even as she learned to live in a foreign land and be rejected by others. What was the result of her commitment?
“She and Boaz get married, and that in itself with such an awesome situation. But then she has a baby. And this baby becomes the generational line of Jesus Christ. Because Ruth didn’t quit, she didn’t give up, she persevered through all of this pain, God chose to use her to impact a generational line.”
How might God use your perseverance to impact the world?
We would have more babies that were adopted.
We would have less homeless people.
There would be fewer needs in the church.
“I think it would be a really beautiful picture of God’s kingdom here on earth.”
We all have daily reminders of perseverance in our life, but we’re also each waiting on a breakthrough. Nicki urges us to be patient. We may not see the result yet, but our commitment will have a spiritual impact years down the road that we can only imagine right now.
“There are still things in my life with my kids, and my marriage, and even in my ministry that I’m still waiting to see the faithfulness of God through. But Ruth gave all of us the steps that we can continue to take in order to get to that place of being found faithful in God’s eyes.”
Key Scriptures: Galatians 6:9
Featured Songs: The Table by Chris Tomlin; Soar by Meredith Andrews; Draw Me Nearer by Meredith Andrews
