Endurance

What is endurance?

In Sports, you can have strength, technique, mental attitude but without endurance you won't carry through to completion or victory, it's the ability to fight until the end.

In natural pursuits, you can have drive, passion, skill even finances but endurance is what will bring you through to succeeding at anything you undertake. It is the ability to keep going even when it may look like everything is failing.

In our Spiritual Life, endurance looks the same way. We have Salvation and we have the continued strength of the Holy Spirit but unless we are willing to be patiently steadfast, we won't carry through thru the end.

[Jas 1:12 NASB] 12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

 

Endurance is not obtained, it is earned by trials and steadfastness. Endurance is a decision to not be swerved from your deliberate purpose and your loyalty to God in faith even in the greatest trials and sufferings. There is no red pill for endurance.

 

 

“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭5:1-5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

 

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop a patience to steadfastly wait and not be swerved from our deliberate purpose and loyalty. And endurance develops strength of our mental and moral qualities, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation

 

[Jas 1:2-4 NLT] 2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

 

The Israelites who did not patiently endure

[Exo 32:1-6NASB] 1 Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, "Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." 2 Aaron said to them, "Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me." 3 Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, "This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt." 5 Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD." 6 So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

 

They saw the presence of GOD and HEARD HIS VOICE

[Exo 19:9, 16-19 NLT] 9 Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will come to you in a thick cloud, Moses, so the people themselves can hear me when I speak with you. Then they will always trust you." Moses told the LORD what the people had said. ... 16 On the morning of the third day, thunder roared and lightning flashed, and a dense cloud came down on the mountain. There was a long, loud blast from a ram's horn, and all the people trembled. 17 Moses led them out from the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 All of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the LORD had descended on it in the form of fire. The smoke billowed into the sky like smoke from a brick kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently. 19 As the blast of the ram's horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God thundered his reply.

Exodus 20, they saw God but were too afraid.

 

Aaron SAW the God of Israel and ate a covenant meal with Him

[Exo 24:9-11 NLT] 9 Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel climbed up the mountain. 10 There they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there seemed to be a surface of brilliant blue lapis lazuli, as clear as the sky itself. 11 And though these nobles of Israel gazed upon God, he did not destroy them. In fact, they ate a covenant meal, eating and drinking in his presence!

 

1. They did not have the steadfast patience to wait on God
2. They had a leader who did not have the steadfast patience/endurance to lead them
3. They failed their test of endurance and therefore faith and bore the consequences.

 

 

 

 

[Rom 8:18 NLT] 18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.

 

 

 

This hope does not lead to disappointment