The Desert Series: Perseverance

Hello everyone! I want to start writing a series of posts talking about personal trials, or as I like to call them... My deserts. I've gone through a series of things and I would like to share them.

Honestly I have never shared it with so many people but I figure that if I share and I can help at least one person who might be going through the same or something similar then it would be worth it. 

To start off this series, I would like to talk about perseverance. I've been reading the book of James and I've learn so much about this specific theme. PERSEVERANCE. It's so important to fight and use our faith when we go through hard times. Although painful... deserts make us bloom... you learn and you became a completely different person.

"... because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:3-4

So 3 years ago, I faced my biggest desert yet and quite honestly I wasn't prepared for it and many times I felt like I wouldn't make it through. 

Being 16 years old, I was quite immature in my faith. I was very dependent on the faith my family shared. Like I've written here, I grew up in church therefore I always had my parents as a point of reference. However as I converted, I remained very much dependent on what they thought and believed. So when the desert came I wasn't my own person before God... I was what my parents were. Their prayer was mine and that was it. Like we say in Portuguese "the umbilical cord" was still there. 

So when I went through this difficult time, I was alone. My parents didn't get it, my friend stayed away and I had only God to keep me walking. I could've easily given up in my faith all together and stay mad at God for allowing such thing to happen. I had all the reasons to simply turn my back on God but I didn't. This dark time only brought me closer to Him. He was the only person I talked to... I shared what I truly felt and I pleaded for help. 

I stayed fighting this desert for a long time... I will slowly write about it here... but it was months where either I had to persevere or just give up. I had to fight against my own pride, my ego, my emotions, my thoughts and everything that simply told me to stop. But I persisted because I knew God would change this. He would bring justice. 

So I fought... was it easy? Oh my... NO!!! It was one of those situations where you simply have to humble yourself to the max and let God so His work. So as I read this verse, and everything came back in my head like a movie... I noticed that now looking back... after that desert... I became spiritually independent. I no longer depended on what people said or believed. I matured... and that's the whole purpose of deserts. God allows them so we can learn, grow and become the person He wants us to be. 

So if you are going through a desert right now...keep your eyes in Jesus and persevere. Don't give up because God has not given up on YOU! 

More about deserts this week... Stay tuned :)

God bless,

Bianca