How blessed is the man...in whose heart are the highways to Zion!

I read a couple of Scriptures about endurance recently that made me think. Endurance has results on two different levels. James 1:4 says, "Let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." On the human level, endurance is all about God's purifying and perfecting us. 1 Peter 1:7 says, "the proof of your faith . . . [will] result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." In the spiritual realm, our endurance will give praise, honor, and glory to Jesus in the end.

Neither of these verses says anything about how we endure. I think there is a general misconception that Christians should endure their trials in some kind of super-spiritual state, as though they were floating above it all, not letting it affect them in any way. Having endured a few trials of my own, I have to say that endurance is not a fun thing. It doesn't feel good; it isn't pretty. It wouldn't be called endurance if it were. But there really is no substitute for endurance. Endurance is what we do when we can't squirm our way out of it, or medicate it away, or be victorious over it. We endure it, whatever "it" may be.

Because endurance is hard does not mean it is worthless. Indeed, its very difficulty is what makes it so valuable. Nothing else will end up making us perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Nothing else will give God the praise, honor, and glory He so richly deserves. In short, it gets the job done.

To live a comfortable life here and now is not the goal for a Christian. Eternity is what we should be focusing on. God may or may not see fit to improve our earthly circumstances to our liking. We endure what we cannot change because of the hope we have for an inheritance in heaven, an inheritance that is "imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away" (1 Pet. 1:3-4).

We know we have awaiting us a better possession than even the best this world can offer. This world and its trials will pass away, but what God has promised is eternal. As the author of Hebrews says, "Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised" (Heb. 10:35-36). Nothing this world throws at us can in any way diminish or destroy what awaits us in heaven.

We need not pretend that enduring our trials and suffering is anything but hard work. Sometimes we feel as though we are hanging on by our last broken fingernail. But hanging on is what endurance is all about. We hang onto Jesus. We hang onto His promise that one day we will see Him face to face and be with Him forever. That is something that is worth every ounce of endurance we can produce. We so often have the illusion that doing the will of God is some wonderful, ethereal thing. In truth, just gutting it out in the hard times, keeping on keeping on in spite of everything else is doing the will of God. Endurance gets the job done.

© J.H.Nichols 2010

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