Endurance
As we long for and pursue the fullness of the Christ within us, our hearts increase in yearning for the time when He will completely rule His kingdom within us. His kingdom has come, and, to be sure, He is in residence within each heart and mind committed to Him. But, like Paul, we do recognize that we have not fully attained all there is of our inheritance.
It is at these times, surrounded by the world’s problems without and within, that we cry, “When, Lord? When will You complete Your work in Your people, so that this groaning creation might be set free?” These are times and seasons when our Lord is working endurance within us. We read great spiritual teachers whose words have proclaimed that now is the time, that the sons of God are to be seen on the earth, that the age of the church is coming to a close and a New Day is here— but many have been writing this way for years.
So yet, we wait. We know nothing else to do but to stand, to wait upon the Father, to stay in God’s school, while He continues His work within us. Endurance is a character trait we may not want to embrace but is surely required in this time. Endurance is both a gift and a duty. Our Lord strengthens us to stand, to wait upon Him for His time and season. We cannot rush God, but we also shall not relinquish our hope in His appearing.
“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” Ephesians 6:13 NIV
Enduring through all the seasons of God strengthens our inner man, as we turn our focus upon what He has promised, continuing to hope in His word. This is the way to obtain the prize of the high calling of which Paul has spoken:
“Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should embrace this point of view. And if you think differently about some issue, God will reveal this to you as well…” Philippians 3:13-15 Berean
One of the most challenging things for God’s people is to wait. We would like the Lord to set all things in order, make things right(eous), now! And why would we not want to see His kingdom come fully in us? We know He is the only One who can make things right. Yet Jesus waited 30 years for His ministry to unfold. He did not run ahead of God, though He fully knew the earthly state of men’s hearts.
“Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere him. For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm. The LORD foils the plans of the nations; He thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for His inheritance. From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind; from His dwelling place he watches all who live on earth—He who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.” Psalms 33:8-15 NIV
He forms the heart, including those of our enemies. He considers everything that humans do. He is omniscient and omnipotent, so faith tells us He knows and can do anything. Still, it seems as if He waits until it is too late from our human perspective. How we would love to give God a time table, a deadline, to answer all our prayers and bring change to all of the circumstances we and others suffer in this world!
Recall Mary and Martha, who called for the Lord to come because their brother Lazarus was sick. They knew of His love for them and assumed He would come immediately, but He did not.
“Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, ‘Lord, the one you love is sick.’
When he heard this, Jesus said, ‘This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.’ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, ‘Let us go back to Judea.’” John 11:1-7 NIV
How did they endure His delay? They had begun to think He did not care—did not really love them or He would have come immediately. And do we not have the same challenging thoughts when God’s answers seem to take so long to become reality? At such times we need endurance, standing strong in the promises of God. He will neither be rushed nor hasten beyond His timetable, and always has the answer, often one not forseen by the petitioners:
“On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. ‘Lord,’ Martha said to Jesus, ‘if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha answered, ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’
Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” ‘Yes, Lord, she replied, ‘I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.’ John 11:17-27 NIV
Though Martha was disappointed and confused by the delay, she demonstrates continuing faith in her Lord. Then Jesus glorified the Father by raising Lazarus from the dead. He knew the end from the beginning, that the Father’s plan was to unfold just in this way.
Delays in God’s answers are a most common trail among His own. May we develop enduring faith, faith that stands in suffering, trusting that God has all things in His hands and His timing is perfect. Let us turn from man’s reasonings, our own carnal mind, further seeded with doubts and fears by the enemy of our souls. Let us not charge our merciful and loving God with forsaking us, abandoning us, failing us, not loving us enough to do what we want when we want it.
God surely understands when we do, yet we must wait upon the Lord to conprehend His will. We must learn to stand in our crises and trials, with enduring faith.
“But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.” Isaiah 40:31 Amplified
Do we believe our God is who He says He is: loving, merciful, endlessly compassionate, faithful and true? We can count upon who He is as we turn from questions, even accusations , that enter our minds and hearts. Endurance, persistence in the midst of waiting and suffering, is most necessary for believers to develop. We can wait upon the Lord, troubled and fearful in our hearts, or we can rest in Him, expecting, continually looking for Him in all circumstances, sustaining our hope.
We desire to follow the Lamb wherever He goes. He endured much undeserved suffering and so do we, to be like Him. God’s waiting room often does include suffering as we wait upon Him. He is with us, renewing our strength when we become weary in the midst of battle. He promises we will soar again, even higher in the spirit, after we have endured the suffering, stood strong in the Lord in the midst of it, continuing to wait upon Him to do His will.
God is love and He will not act contrary to His nature of love, regardless of the thoughts of men. Paul told the Corinthians that love endures all things. We are to pray without ceasing and endure all as good soldiers of Christ. As we love the Lord, we learn patient endurance through all the hardships, the adversity, the suffering that this life brings,. We know our life is hid with Christ in God and He strengthens us. Jesus said:
“Also [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to [a]turn coward (faint, lose heart, and give up).” Luke 18:1 Amplified
Endurance necessitates patience, one of the fruits of the spirit the Lord develops within as we serve Him. It’s part of our character development as Christians and one that every child needs to learn. Just as with our children, we children of God can either wait with patience…or not. Jesus knew all that must be done, and was aware of every need around Him. Yet He knew that only a small portion of humanity would benefit from His earthly ministry.
“…having this same confidence, that He Who undertakes a good work among you, will be performing it until the day of Jesus Christ:" Philippians 1:6 Concordant Literal
He develops patience in us as we endure all things that come our way. His good work is to grow the fruit of the spirit as we “abide in the Vine.” He knows when we need patience to endure the adversity in this world. He never stops performing this inner work of the heart until His day to rule and reign within His people is fulfilled in us, His body.
Endurance keeps us holding on, while perseverance is necessary to see this end result.
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we a have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5: 1-5 NIV
Herein is the process of developing enduring faith in God’s waiting room. Father God teaches perseverance to His own. Perseverance is a building block toward the character of Christ Himself to be displayed within God’s sons and daughters. Because we know the purpose of our sufferings is to mature us, just as Jesus was made perfect by sufferings, we have hope. We have the love of God in our hearts and give no place to the devil in this process.
Anyone intending to reach a goal in life must develop perseverance. It is a hard lesson for some of us to learn, but successfully reaching a goal takes time, persistance, and patience or the process becomes unendurable, intolerable to us. We can do all things through Christ, as Paul said, but when the goal is to have all the qualities of our Lord, it takes time—usually a lifetime of serving our Lord. We need endurance!
Consider these varying translations of this directive in Hebrews:
“For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” Hebrews 10:35-36 KJV
“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” Hebrews 10: 35-36 NIV
“Do not, therefore, fling away your [fearless] confidence, for it has a glorious and great reward. For you have need of patient endurance [to bear up under difficult circumstances without compromising], so that when you have carried out the will of God, you may receive and enjoy to the full what is promised.” Hebrews 10:35-36 Amplified
“You should not, then, be casting away your boldness, which is having a great reward, for you have need of endurance that, doing the will of God, you should be requited with the promise.” Hebrews 10:35-36 Concordant Literal
The various words used—patience, persevere, patient endurance, endurance—show the interconnected meaning of this character trait of endurance, which is the direct translation of the Greek word used in Hebrews 10. Strong’s translates the word “hupomone” as “cheerful or hopeful endurance, constancy: enduring, patience, patient continuance (waiting)’. This is expanded as “to stay under (behind), remain, figuratively to undergo, bear trials, have fortitude, persevere: abide, endure patiently suffering, tarrying behind.”
Patient endurance, as expressed in the Amplified translation, seems most useful. There is an attitude of patience as part of enduring and waiting until God does His work. We may look to the outward circumstances and become impatient, lose our fortitude (strength), finding it difficult to stay under or behind God’s will and timing. But He works in us to have this essential quality as we stay connected to Him. Endurance is indeed an aspect of the strength of the Lord within us!
When God’s answers seem to delay, when we wonder “How long, oh Lord?”, when we are baffled by His time because we are stuck in time, endurance is the lesson we are learning. When Jesus was speaking of the end times in Matthew, He spoke of the reward for those who endure to the end. of God’s promise to restore all to Himself:
“But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Matthew 24:13 KJV
As the old song says “It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus…” Let us endure unto this end, when we more fully and truly “see Jesus” in each other. He will have a people without spot or wrinkle, clearly showing forth their Lord and Master. He is here, coming to tabernacle in His body, His sons and daughters who persevere, to save us completely and fully.
Amen. So be it.