My little girl is now three years old.  She’s a doll, and we love her dearly.  But, OH!  What parents will go through for their children!
We bought her a little toy kitchen.  Read “much assembly required.”  Practically everything was made of molded plastic and was connected to other pieces so that each piece had to be cut apart from the other pieces.  It seemed that there were millions of little pieces.
Now, we just moved into our home after spending three months renovating it first (it was a foreclosure that we bought).  What that means is this; I am tired of assembling things!  This is my little girl’s birthday, though, so the task must be finished.
It was aggravating in some senses.  The obstructions instructions were not always clear, but I managed.  In the end, I was glad, because a little girl - MY little girl - will smile and get much pleasure out of her kitchen.
As I put it together I reflected on the fact that there were some similarities between assembling the kitchen and perservering in grace.  They are as follows:
1.  The instructions are sufficient and clear to the one who desires to succeed.  Every time that I hit a snag I would go back to the instructions and find that the problem was with my reading of them instead of with the instructions themselves.  God has given us His Word, and the clarity of Scripture makes it available to all who desire to succeed in the Christian life.  While man-made instructions fail, God’s Word will guide us perfectly to the goal to which we aspire.
2.  Grace is absolutely necessary.  No matter what, or how simple was assume something to be we cannot succeed apart from God’s grace.  Whether it is a “simple” task such as putting a child’s toy together, or living one’s life to the glory of God, we need grace.  We will find ourselves facing frustrations, and obstacles as we do our work.  If we are to not throw up our hands in despair we will need God’s grace to enable us to perservere.
3.  Love and the prospect of joy motivate us to keep on keeping on.  My love for my daughter caused me to keep on with the kitchen.  Oh, it wasn’t really THAT hard.  It was just that there were so many little parts….  Neither is the Christian life all that hard (Remember, Jesus said, “my yoke is easy.”) , but it is more so a series of little events that tend to overwhelm us if we forget why we are doing as we are.  Love for Jesus will motivate us to perservere so that we can please Him. 
The prospect of joy - seeing the smile on her face as she played with her kitchen- motivated me, too.  The thought of my Master being pleased and saying “well done” motivates me, too.  The pleasure of knowing that God will receive eternal glory in His church, and that I will experience and enjoy His pleasures forever as my graciously given reward moves me to perservere.
In the end, there was no real difficulty in assembling the kitchen.  Neither is there any real hardship in serving Jesus.  The benefits always outweigh the liabilities in such a fashion that there is nothing that can be considered a sacrifice or a hardship in serving Jesus.
Just musing…