Endure

2 Tim.4:⁵ [NIV] “But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”

A lot of us devote so much energy daily to trying to avoid challenges. We should actually be thanking God for challenges and adversity because they help us develop endurance.

Endurance is a powerful weapon to have in your character arsenal as a child of God. Endurance is key to the Christian walk, the works, and the fruit. Covenants are the cornerstones on which the foundations of life and endeavours are built. Covenants cannot be sustained without character and there can be no character without endurance.

The marriage covenant for example; you grow, you learn what not to do and what to do in order to keep the marriage whole. It is a covenant you have entered into with a man and with God. God ordained marriage and He does not expect you to go through marriage putting up with your spouse. How can your position be to just keep quiet? That is the attitude of a peacekeeper and it will rob you of all that the covenant brings. For iron to sharpen iron, sparks will fly but you are sharpening yourselves – peace-makers.

Yesterday we learnt that when you endure something, you are learning what God wants you to learn through the process. It becomes a process of growth, a process of maturing. And you do not remain on the level you started on because what we endure, will eventually take us to our desired end. But putting up with something is like going around in circles. Eventually you will get dizzy just going around in circles and then sit-down [quit] and do not add anything to yourself.

Another example is fasting; because we have caught sight of where God is taking us, we endure days of waiting on Him. With endurance, it helps to keep the desired goal in mind. As a parent, if your children misbehave for instance, you do not send them packing. You endure their immaturity because you are the parent and you keep moving forward. What keeps you moving is the desired goal for them, the vision for their future which will be greater than ours, in Jesus Name.

Prayer: Father, please help me endure and develop character, in Jesus Name. Amen!