Endurance

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have its perfect work. That you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:2-4

 

Let’s start with ENDURANCE. The word in the above text for “Patience” translates as thus:

Steadfastness

Patient continuance

Constancy

Sustaining

Perseverance

Patient waiting

Patient enduring

Let’s recognize that our Father has a bigger plan for you than you can see with your natural eyes!  Trials do not enter into your life for no good reason.  I hear Christians all the time saying that they do not understand why God would allow such a terrible thing to happen to someone (or ourselves).  We look with our natural eyes and do not have the understanding. If a person’s life is in Christ Jesus then that person’s life is protected by the blood of Jesus and NOTHING can happen in that person’s life without the consent of the Father!

The Word of God tells us that,

 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose. Hebrew 8:28

Knowing this and taking this into consideration we must also consider and ask ourselves why this thing has been allowed to take place in my life.  We may not always get an immediate answer, therefore we must be obedient and to patiently endure what has befallen us.  This DOES NOT mean to quietly wait for the situation to pass!  I want to emphasis this.  However, this is not the time to give up hope.  This is the time to dig deep into your Faith pocket and hold on for the ride!

Okay, so let’s be practical here.  Sometimes life can deal us some pretty ugly blows and it sometimes seems like there is no end.  We find ourselves pushed to our knees with no strength to get up.  This is when we MUST continue in our faith, KNOWING that God is still in control of everything that concerns you. This is the time when perseverance must take place.  We must be determined and steadfast in our belief that NOTHING can affect our lives without the expressed consent of the Father!

In Hebrew 10:36 we are told that we have need of Patience (endurance and perseverance!) so that after we have done the will of God that we may receive the promise: it is noteworthy to know that promise here also translates to Blessing!

Let me share an incident with you.  In 2008 I was instructed by the Lord to go back to the Dominican Republic.  This mandate came in April.  Later in the month my estranged husband asked to come back into my life. I had opened a small store on e-bay and was saving money to make this trip.  The money was coming in steadily and my job was going very well. I was on top of the world! Here I am being sent on a missionary trip, my husband came home, and I was making money hand over fist!! Life was good! In August I was instructed by the Lord to pray for PERSEVERENCE, which, thank God, I was obedient to do.

Strategically, the enemy devised a plan to try to stop me from going on this trip. My job changed my pay scale which caused me to make 30% less than I had been making.  E-bay closed my store on a technicality which caused the flow of money to stop.  My “husband” decided he was not going to contribute to the financial expenses of the home.

 I now was making 30% less from my job, no money coming in from my store and I was now supporting another grown adult. HHMMMM….I continued to pray and believe. 

I knew without a doubt that I had been instructed by the Holy Spirit to make this trip.

  I traveled on a scheduled trip to Rhode Island to a church I had helped to get established and celebrated their 10 year anniversary with them.  Upon arriving back home in Florida I found an eviction notice on my front door; the house I was renting had been foreclosed on by the bank and they were giving me 10 days to vacate.  I had experience terrible pain in my body upon having arrived back in Florida.  I went to the doctor who told me I had an e-coli infection that had affected my kidneys.  He told me to take the medicine and stay home from work.  I steadily saw the money I had saved for the trip dwindling.  My pastor from Rhode Island informed me he and his wife would be coming for a visit. I was so sick.  Then my husband demonstrated that married life was not for him and became physically violent.

Oh boy!!  But I KNEW, without a doubt that I had been instructed to go and I recognized the plan of the enemy.  I determined within myself that NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENED I was going to the Dominican Republic, as instructed!! I had studied the word PERSEVERENCE.  I found where it had been mentioned in the bible.  I meditated on it and believed that because I had asked for it that God would supply it!!

Let’s do a recap:

1.)  My ability to earn money had been completely stopped

2.)  My husband was now violent and would not leave my house, therefore I am supporting him

3.)  I have been evicted from my home

4.)  I am dreadfully ill

And, I am still determined that in 10 days I am going to the Dominican Republic and I will be effective!

Thank God for my Pastors visit.  They prayed with me daily.  By the time it was my time to leave I was still sick, but I was more determined than sick. I went on the plane with pain and my bottle of medicine.  I had a six hour layover in Miami and most of the time I rested with my head on my suitcase in the terminal. I tried not to think about the trouble I was leaving behind me and only look forward to what was ahead.  I had a 10 day stay in the Dominican and I was determined I would accomplish whatever the Lord had prepared for me there.

From the moment I set my foot on the soil in the Dominican Republic the pain in my body left!  What a witness to the Power of the Most High!

With the strength of God I had been able to persevere and to endure with enduring faith that I was going on this trip no matter what the enemy threw at me!

I had been able to endure and I received the blessing.

 In the Dominican Republic wonderful things happened, the best of which was watching a brother give his life to God right there on the beach.  I watched as God proved Himself strong to this young man and later as he brought his family to church.  I can still see the brightness in the face of his wife as her faced beamed with the brightness of the Holy Ghost, as she stood next to her husband, her saved born again husband, in the church.

It was all so worth it!!  The hardship, the pain, the loss of money meant nothing when I saw their faces.  When I got home God had already worked everything out for me and in my home I had peace again.

This all came because of perseverance.  Imagine what the outcome may have been if I had decided to give up; throw in the towel, wallow in my pain and suffering and tell God it was all just too much for me to handle!!  I do not even want to speculate on what more devastation may have come upon me.  But I stood firm in my faith.  It was in no way easy, I am not going to come across like I was just not feeling the pain.  It was hard!  REALLY hard!  But Praise God for His promises.  He spoke and I clearly heard and I chose to believe.

I want to revisit our original text:

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have its perfect work. That you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:2-4

 

The author here tells us that the testing of our faith produces patience, (endurance, perseverance, patient continuance, steadfastness).  He also tells us to let patience have its “perfect “work.  He admonishes us to bring ourselves to Completeness.  Don’t stop halfway through the task.  Hold on even if it is difficult.  WHY?  That you may be perfect (completed) and complete (complete in all respects and faultless) wanting (lacking or being inferior) nothing.

God has given us a plan for victory; I heard a pastor say once that the battle is already won but it is up to us to sustain the victory!  Our lives are not to be lived in defeat.  He has given us everything we need to live a victorious life, but it is clearly up to us to choose wisely how we will react when adversity arrives in our life.

Don’t give up!! Don’t lose heart!!