A Prayer for Perseverance Through A Long Season

We’ve been living in a season filled with uncertainty for a while now. Yet, the pandemic likely isn’t the only heavy thing in your life. Whether it be the added stress of a chronic illness or rare disease, grief or loss, family or marital strain, the struggles faced in “precedented times” haven’t gone away. Those struggles are ever-present…and in a pandemic, likely heavier than ever before.

In the heaviness, I keep being drawn to one specific word: perseverance.

Continuance in a state of grace to the end. What a beautiful depiction of what it means to persevere, to steadily persist. 

There is a longing in my heart for that these days. Do you feel it too?

A Prayer for Perseverance Through A Long Season

As we persevere through our own distinct struggles, I want to share with you a prayer for perseverance to uplift when it all feels too much as a way to connect with God in these unprecedented days.

Like the prayer for hard days, I encourage you to make the prayer for perseverance your own. May we turn to it when we are lost for words or when we desire to connect with God but struggle to find the words.

We know God doesn’t need perfect prayers. He simply needs us to lean into Him. If all you have the strength to muster is God, help me to keep going—he hears you and he is attuned to your needs.

May this prayer for perseverance be one we use as a way to lean into Him and rest in His peace as our aim to find continuance in a state of grace.

Lord, 

I come to you tired, burdened, and weary knowing that you promise rest (Matthew 11:28). Grant me rest.

I come to you seeking respite from the heaviness and uncertainty. In my weakness, may you grant me relief as I dwell in your presence. May your grace be sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9).

I lay down the fear and anxiety on my heart. Lord, strengthen me with the courage to keep going, to continue to persevere through these difficult and trying days.

Help me remain steadfast under trial (James 1:12), to run with endurance the race that is set before me (Hebrews 12:1), and to rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and constant in prayer (Romans 12:12).

Lord, as my refuge and strength you have seen me through trials both great and small.

You, Lord, deserve all my praise, for you, Lord, never change.

Your steadfast love endures forever.

Hear my prayer. Amen.

Download a PDF of the prayer for perseverance.

Verses to Reflect On + Uplift in Prayer

The Psalms are a constant resource to me when I seek words to uplift in prayer. May these verses offer you comfort as you reflect on them and lift them up in prayer. All verses are from the ESV translation.

“Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.” Psalm 4:1

“Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray.” Psalm 5:1

“Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled.” Psalm 6:2-3

“Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distress.” Psalm 25:16-17

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1

“I cry aloud to God, and he will hear me. In the day of my trouble, I seek the Lord.” Psalm 77:1-2

“My soul melts away with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word.” Psalm 119: 28

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word, I hope.” Psalm 130:4