IBS Application for Colossians 1:11

“...being strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy...”

To me, this verse serves to emphasize what I’ve been learning about what true perseverance is and what it looks like. To persevere as a Christian means enduring hardships with longsuffering and a smile on your face.

As disciples of Christ, living life as witnesses, we’re expected to encounter persecution and trials at the hands of both the world and the enemy. Because of this, we’re also called to have patience, endurance and joy in the face of opposition, because it’s what pleases God.

And why is it pleasing to God? Because it is the ultimate picture of what a life of witness should look like. Being able to sing praises to God and have joy despite having no worldly reason to is the essence of living testimony. When people living in the world see the supernatural endurance of our spirits, it’s impossible to not see that God is with us.

This is the might of God made manifest in our lives: That we would be granted strength to overcome trials that befall us and to do so with joy and enough patience to suffer through it all. But this is unfortunately where I falter the most in my walk in the midst of storms. I don’t always persevere with joy. In fact, I hardly ever do so with joy.


Joy in the middle of the torrential downpours of life is the mark of an assured Christian, and it’s something I want to have in my walk with Christ. It is my prayer this week that I would be granted not only endurance and patience in trials and persecution, but joy as well. Not only for me, but for the others here in Class 14 who struggle to have joy. We’re in this fight together. So I will pray for two people each day for the next seven days, in addition to two people that I will pray for today, until I’ve prayed for everyone in our class, that we’d all be living testimonies to God’s might and grace as we go about living out our days as disciples for the rest of the year.

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