Word of the Day: Perseverance

perseverance
per-se-ver-ance / pûr-sə-vîr-əns
noun
1. unwavering persistence in a purpose, belief or course of action even when difficulties are encountered
Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance
Samuel Johnson, 1709 – 1784
2. in Calvinistic theology, the doctrine that all those called by God will remain in a state of grace until death, when salvation will be given
This perseverance is the promise of the new covenant, obtained by the blood of Christ, and worked in us by God himself, yet not so as to diminish, but only to empower and encourage, our vigilance; so that we may say in the end, I have fought the good fight, but it was not I, but the grace of God which was with me (2 Timothy 4:7; 1 Corinthians 15:10). 
John Piper, “What We Believe About the Five Points of Calvinism”, ‘Desiring God’, www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-we-believe-about-the-five-points-of-calvinism, March 1, 1985