Persevering in Faith, by Grace

My wife, Mary, and I have been working with Wycliffe Bible Translators since 1972. We have been serving in Cameroon since 1976, although some of that time has been spent in the USA, where we are now.
People who love the Lord Jesus and his ministers are frequently saying that we are an example of persevering. That's good to hear, but I would like to add a rejoinder:
Everything is by God's grace, even our persevering.
The Apostle Paul writes: "Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. ... it is by faith you stand firm." (2 Corinthians 1:21 and 1:24). The two statements are not at odds if faith is also the gift of God, which he says very clearly: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." (Ephesians 2:8)
So the source and ultimate ground of our faith and our faithfulness is God, who makes us stand firm through the faith that he gives.
So we are beneficiaries of God's gracious gift, faith, and he permits us to persevere faithfully to his glory!