Tenacity

"Be still, and know that I am God..." (Psalm 46:10)

Years ago, I had a Rottweiler, and one of his favorite things to do was to play tug-of-war.  He was exceptionally good at it!  He would not let go!  It didn't matter what I would do to try and distract him, how hard I would pull, or how long I would stand there putting tension on that rope toy; He was not going to relent!  He was tenacious!  

Tenacity is being able to grip something firmly; it is determination; it is persistence.  "Tenacity is more than endurance, it is endurance combined with the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire.  Tenacity is more than hanging on, which may be  but the weakness of being too afraid to fall off (or let go.)" (Oswald Chambers)

To "Be still," requires tenacity.  The tenacity is depicted by the comma we find after the words "Be still,"; a comma is a pause, it is put there to make you take a breath before moving on.  Pausing spiritually requires patience, and waiting for God is one of the greatest strains in life.  It is only in the 'being still' that we come to "know that He is God."  It is in the comma that our true tenacity is seen.  Will we hold on when the tension on our rope is so strong that our spiritual jaw hurts, when our muscles are fatigued from the strain of gripping onto that promise with everything that we have?  Will we hang on fiercely as time ticks on while we wait for the silence to break, for the answer to come, for the healing to be manifested, for the forgiveness to flow?  

And it is only after we have held on persistently that we come to 'know that He is God.'
As we wait, He speaks.  As we wait, He works.  As we wait, He loves.  As we wait, He transforms.  As we wait, He becomes.  He becomes the rope that we are holding onto, He becomes the tension on the other end, He becomes the strength of our jaw, He becomes our stillness.  It is in this tenacious patience that He reveals that He "is all, and in all." (Colossians  3:11)  

Be tenacious! Never give up!  Take hold of Him with everything you've got and don't let go, and you will know God in ways you never imagined you could!