Key Thought: Faithfulness is proven through perseverance.
Key Quote Sometimes it’s the challenge that brings out your greatness, sometimes it’s your pain that paints the most beautiful picture. – Pastor Bil Cornelius
Start talking. Find a conversation starter for your group.
What is your favorite Olympic sport?
Name something that requires perseverance before it can be accomplished.
Why are testimonies of perseverance so inspiring?
Have you ever watched someone quit? What was it like to witness it?
Start thinking. Ask a thoughtful question.
What is it about hard times that can help grow you?
Why do you think that God chooses to allow evil?
Why do we often make wrong choices even when we know there will be negative consequences?
What would make you quit?
Start sharing. Choose questions that create openness.
What is something difficult you’ve been through that’s actually turned out to be for the better?
Have you ever intentionally allowed God to “chip away” at you so that he can create a masterpiece? Why or why not?
Has anyone ever quit on you? What was that like?
When you quit, you leave things unfinished. Is there a current situation you want to walk away from? Go around the room and share these situations, then encourage each other to persevere.
Start praying. Be bold, and pray with power.
Dear Jesus, we realize we need you. Life is difficult and full of tests, so we ask for you to give us the strength to persevere. We want you to shape us, mold us, and chip away at us so that we can become who you designed us to be. In your name we pray, Amen.
Start doing. Commit to a step and live it out this week.
Identify an area in your life that you need to persevere to set a good example for yourself and others.
Pray every morning that God will give you the strength to persevere in the specific area(s) you’ve identified and continue to grow and shape you into who he’s called you to be.
Have each person in the group name a strength they see in one or more other group members and how that encourages them to persevere in their own difficulties.
Scriptures
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. Hebrews 12:1
Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. James 1:2-4 MSG
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. 2 Timothy 4:7-8 NASB
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:31-32 ESV We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, and
rightly so, because your faith flourishes more and more and the love of each
one of you all for one another is ever greater. As a result we ourselves
boast about you in the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in all
the persecutions and afflictions you are enduring. 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4 NET
