Learning To Endure:
I know we’ve all had miserable times in our life. Each time we think we’re at the very end of our rope, and yet come through, we learn that if we just endure, then our spiritual endurance deepens.
The next time dark days arrived, maybe we were able to cling tight just a bit longer. Still, learning to endure is a process of being tested.
Being tested or tempted doesn’t mean we failed. Jesus was put to the test three times at His most physically weakened state. Yet, He clung to His faith in our Father and came through.
While we’ve been on this cross-country motorcycle trip, it’s been thousands of miles of prayer and meditation. I have Brothers praying over us, but still as I began to grow physically tired, I felt a restless, impatient spirit.
Yesterday morning, I had no desire to pray with my wife before we headed out. I was reminded of James 1:3-5 and the effect testing of faith has in enduring. I went through her pics, and I saw the misery of biking through driving rain around the twisting mountain roads.
Still, I was able to rely on the tough times when tested with miserable days and conditions. It was then that the Holy Spirit began to reassure me that if I just avoided complaining and clung to what was ahead of me, that this test would also end with a praise for God delivering us to safety.
So what do you know? Here I am after another blessed day of travel with my wife, and opportunities to pray and spend time in His presence. Did the rain and ride stink? Yes it did, but what did I focus on? Enduring.
It’s not always going to be sunshine in our lives, but was always in the storms that we learned the best lessons about the hardest times and our true strength to endure them in Christ.
Much Love / Much Respect,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God,[a] who gives to all without hesitation and without reproach; and it will be given to him.
James 1:3-5