Hebrews 10:36 “For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:” In Hebrews the bible tells us that we have need of endurance and after we have done the will of God we may receive the promise. I believe the Lord is trying to tell us that life isn’t always easy but if we stay the course and follow Him we will overcome victorious and receive everything He has intended for us. God is the Alpha and Omega, (the beginning and the end) He is Lord of Lord, King of Kings, Ruler of the universe and He cannot lie.
The bible goes on to say in 2 Corinthians 1:20 “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” That is some great news friends!
Strength, tolerance and perseverance are some words that come to mind when you think of Endurance.
Dictionary.com says the fact or power of enduring or bearing pain, hardships. The ability or strength to continue or last, especially despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions; stamina: He has amazing physical endurance.
Okay so in the dictionary it says, endurance is to “continue on” when bearing pain or hardships, the “ability or strength” to “keep going”, especially despite fatigue stress or other adverse conditions. It’s the ability or strength to keep going! We don’t stop in the middle of a hardship we must to keep going, continue on while moving forward.
This scripture has made a big impact on me. I believe it’s telling us that even when we are so tired we cannot hardly stand it, or when we are stressed out to the point we think we cannot make it anymore, or if we have any other adverse condition such as a health condition, if you received a report from the doctor that wasn’t what you wanted to hear, or if you have been living with a chronic disease, or ailment that has gone on far too long. There is good news here for each and every one of us to grasp and take hold of and that is even in any of these scenarios the Lord tells us He is with us through our endurance and when we have done the will of God we will receive His promises.
Endurance we all have it the question is how much of it do we have? In Hebrews12:1 “So since we stand surrounded by all those who have gone before, an enormous cloud of witnesses, let us drop every extra weight, every sin that clings to us and slackens our pace, and let us run with endurance the long race set before us.”
If the bible tells us we should lighten our loads. We must lighten our loads! How do we lighten our loads you ask? Well, it says here, by dropping every extra weight, every sin that clings, let’s take a look at the word clings for a moment, it means to grip, stick like glue, hang onto to us and then it says and slackens meaning slows down our pace.
This is saying get rid of every sin that tries to grip, stick to you like glue and hang on and it goes on to say that it slows you down. Seems to me Jesus is trying to tell us that we have a long race ahead of us and sin gets in the way, it slows us down, it doesn’t offer us anything good although it may have a tempting package on the label, that is about the only thing good about it. Satan may be good at marketing, but we are not buying what he is selling!
Throughout my healing journey I have been on this last year and a half I have been faced with many stormy seas. I have trusted that the Lord, Jesus Christ as He has walked beside me wherever I have walked and I’m sure at times He has had to carry me. I am thankful. Knowing He is watching over me, so no matter what report the doctors give me, or no matter if the insurance company denies my medicine until fall, or if I feel so tired I can barely get out of bed, or if I feel like a marathon race runner feels on their last leg of their race at the start of my day. I know that God is for me! I’m not sure what you are facing right now, but I do know God is for you too!
In Isaiah 43:2 “When you face stormy seas I will be there with you with endurance and calm; you will not be engulfed in raging rivers. If it seems like you’re walking through fire with flames licking at your limbs, keep going; you won’t be burned.”
Wow, this is a very powerful scripture! The bible is telling us that we will be faced with stormy seas. However, He will be there in the midst with endurance and calm. Jesus will be with us wherever we go. We are given a promise here and that if it seems like we are walking through fire with flames we are to always remember that He is there and He will keep up from burning. We read earlier that All the promises of God are yes and amen. This is encouraging new to me and I hope this promise encourages you as well.
This journey has not been an easy one for me however I can tell you that I have developed endurance. I can tell you that the joy of the Lord is my strength! It is through praise and thanksgiving I feel such a peace and know that my Jesus is working on my behalf.
In Romans 5:3 “And that’s not all. We also celebrate in seasons of suffering because we know that when we suffer we develop endurance”
For years I had been anxious and fearful from many hardships and abuse from the past. I can tell you my doctor prescribed me medications to help ease the anxiety, fear and pain. There was a problem with this plan and at the time I didn’t know there could possibly be a potential problem with a doctor trying to help me. Isn’t it funny hindsight is always 20/20. The problem was that I was trading one set of problems for another set of problems. Most people think a pill prescribed by your doctor can cure anything, NOT True; in fact all it did was just put a Band-Aid on the problem and made me become dependent on the medication. So I just traded one thing for another. I became a slave to the medication. I had to take it because I became addicted to it. It’s interesting because of fear I took this drug became addicted to it and when I couldn’t get off of it, then I was fearful again. I guess you could say the enemy gripped, glued and was hanging on to me.
There is good news though. Throughout this journey I’ve been on I feel like the Lord is cleaning me up physically/spiritually totally and completely healing me from the inside/out!
The Lord has healed me from the addiction from the medicine after 20 years! That is incredible to me! I have not had alcohol in a year and a half either. I didn’t have a problem with this but I feel like the Lord is just cleaning house and this is just one more thing that needed cleaning. Pastor Robert has talked about alcohol and spirits…if there is a chance of a correlation between the two I am better off not having that either.
I am truly inspired, extremely thankful and understand that it is only with the help of the Holy Spirit could any of this be possible. In James 1:2-4 “Don’t run from tests and hardships, brothers and sisters. As difficult as they are, you will ultimately find joy in them; if you embrace them, your faith will blossom under pressure and teach you true patience as you endure. And true patience brought on by endurance will equip you to complete the long journey and cross the finish line—mature, complete, and wanting nothing.”