There is no question that adversity and setbacks will come in life. How you handle them makes all the difference between success and failure. When complications, obstacles or unexpected circumstances appear to block your path, you must be equipped with resourcefulness and perseverance to solve each problem. Being determined to find a way over, under, around or through the obstacle requires “stick-to-itiveness,” or perseverance! You can move mountains, one truckload at a time if your level of resolve remains strong.

As radio talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger said, “We don’t find meaning in our lives from the lack of challenges or even misery. We find meaning in our lives by how we face these challenges.”

Fighting the battles

Just after becoming prime minister of Britain, Winston Churchill addressed Parliament on May 13, 1940. In his first address as prime minister, he soberly described the Nazi threat and rallied his people to face the darkest days of World War II with tenacity and perseverance:

“I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this government: I have nothing to offer but toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war by sea, land and air with all our might and with all the strength God can give us…That is our policy. You ask, what is our goal? I can answer in one word. It is victory — victory, at all costs, victory in spite of all terror — victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival” (William Manchester, The Caged Lion, Michael Joseph, London, 1988, pp. 682-683).

With resolute, tenacious courage and perseverance, the British people rallied behind their leader. June 4, 1940, after the major defeat at Dunkirk, Churchill announced to his countrymen, “We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the sea and the oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the hills. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall never surrender” (ibid., pp. 683-684). Against all odds the British people did fight with perseverance and, after the long hard Battle of Britain, they emerged victorious.

Some two decades earlier American President Calvin Coolidge also recognized the importance of persistent perseverance: “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

But human effort alone is not enough. Most people never stop to realize that there is additional help available from a truly omnipotent source.

Do you have what it takes?

While mustering human perseverance can pay off, most people are still not as successful as they could be, because they fail to utilize one additional critical key in becoming a successful overcomer—God’s help and backing. On our own, even with extraordinary effort like that exhibited by the British people, we do not have everything it takes to learn from and master the challenges of life (John 15:4-5).

People trying to exist without the living Jesus Christ in their lives are missing the most practical and valuable asset available. God’s help and backing can produce major physical, mental, financial and spiritual dividends.

People trying to exist without the living Jesus Christ in their lives are missing the most practical and valuable asset available.

I am not referring to blind faith without any personal effort. We need to actively work to overcome obstacles and trials with persistent effort. God expects us to do our part. He wants each of us to use and develop the mind and ability He has given us, and that requires firsthand experience. We need to work like the solution depends on us while relying on God to direct our paths (Psalm 32:8). This provides the added security and powerful backing only our Creator can provide. Active living faith produces effort and work (James 2:18-20). Someone once asked, “If you could hear God whispering to you, ‘I am with you,’ would you give up and quit?”

Yet there will be times when there is nothing we can do to solve a problem or overcome an obstacle. Often when circumstances are beyond our control, it is more difficult to persevere. But when we humbly wait on God and submit our will to His, we grow in faith and character. God may choose to simply work out circumstances to solve the problem, or He may allow the problem to persist to perfect our faith and increase our reliance on Him (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). Regardless, we must persevere to the end.

God’s purpose in trials

If God is involved in our lives, situations, opportunities and even trials will have deeper and more purposeful meaning. God places our spiritual growth ahead of our physical comfort and success. So should we. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4, New International Version).

When we humbly wait on God and submit our will to His, we grow in faith and character.

When we persevere though trials and circumstances—which God allows for our good—godly character can develop. “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).

Overcoming trials can produce the character God wants. At the same time we can be comforted in knowing that God will provide a way out of them. “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Building character

Paul summarized how the character-building process works: “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Romans 5:3-4).

The Bible pictures God as the master potter and we as the clay He is molding to be more like Himself (Romans 9:20-21; Isaiah 64:8). Sometimes God chooses to knock off the rough edges to smooth out our character. In a sense we are clay images of God in the making, composed of the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). He wants us to be like Him in thought, character and deed.

Paul had to endure many hardships and setbacks (2 Corinthians 11:24-28). But he persevered though the ups and downs of life and encouraged his followers to do the same (Romans 8:37-39). Paul, like Winston Churchill and the British people, knew that the reward in the end was worth the sacrifice and unrelenting persistence today. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).