One of the great things we can learn from sports is perseverance and overcoming adversity. I have watched a team ofunderdog eleven year old baseball players struggle with a losing season, but persevere in spite of it all. I’ve watched them engage each new game with new hope that this game may yield a “W.” While the season only had four wins, they looked forward to another season and the hope that it would be better.

Losing seasons are incredibly difficult. Sometimes life can be like that – discouraging, difficult, seasons of trouble.

Sometimes the circumstances of our lives can fill us with despair and move us toward depression. Usually it’s directly related to our plans getting disrupted or rearranged. We plan for things in our lives to go well for us, but life is not always like that. It’s during these times that we need to be reminded of our need to rely on God. It’s His plans and His way tha we need to yield to. Galatians 6:9 (ESV) And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Sometimes we struggle with this because our timing and our plans aren’t necessarily God’s plans and God’s timing.

The principle of perseverance compels us to keep going and never give up in spite of the odds. We do this in God’s strength when we put our trust in Him through it all. So that good you are doing – those prayers you keep praying or that encouraging word you keep giving – keep doing that.

Don’t grow weary and give up. Give the expectation of results to God. Never stop doing good. There is no magic formula that says if you do good things there will be good results. But trusting in God through it all gives it purpose in the difficult seasons.

Some seasons are more difficult and some are more rewarding. Trust God through each one of them. The ultimate results are not the point, but rather what we learn along the way. If we trust God and allow each obstacle to cause us to grow in Him, then our growing relationship with God becomes the point of it all.

The underdog baseball team is another year older and the record for the season already looks much better.

It’s a new season and a bright future. So if you are going through a dark and difficult time – hold on, persevere, never give up! And like that baseball team, continue to persevere. Trust God and His timing for a better season to come.

Gene King is the pastor of Grace Fellowship in Atmore.