Mea e 'ai e tatau ma le aso
“Be still, and know that I am God ” (Psalm 46:10).
Today I go to the final services and burial of my good friend, Iupati "Pat" Tervola. Times like these you reflect on perseverance as more than endurance. It is endurance combined with absolute assurance and certainty that what we are looking for and forward to is going to happen. Perseverance means more than just hanging on, which may be only exposing our fear of letting go and falling from faith.
Perseverance is our supreme effort of refusing to believe that our hero is going to be conquered. Our greatest fear is not that we will be damned, but that somehow Jesus Christ will be defeated, and our hopes with it. Also, our fear is that the very things our Lord stood for—love, justice, forgiveness, and kindness among men—will not win out in the end and will represent an unattainable goal for us, our families and friends.
Then you reflect on the call to "Spiritual perseverance". A call not to hang on and do nothing, but to work confidently towards, knowing with certainty that God will never and can never be defeated because the victory is already been completed on Calvary.
If our hopes seem to be experiencing disappointment right now for one reason or another, it simply means that they are being purified as in gold (1 Peter 1:7). Every hope or dream of the human mind will be fulfilled if it is noble and faithful to God.
But one of the greatest stresses in life is the stress of waiting for God. But rest assure, He brings fulfillment, “because you have kept My command to persevere ” (Revelation 3:10). My friends and family, continue to persevere spiritually. Like the Psalmist said. “Be still, and know that I am God ”
Ia manuia,
failauga p. anoa'i
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