Blessed endurance

My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. – James 5.10-11

There are times in all of our lives when it seems like it is just a matter of holding on and plugging away. Sometimes there are not dramatic highs or devastating lows but just plodding and living day by day and doing our best and waiting and trusting and, well, enduring.

That word endure is the same Greek word that is often translated ‘patience’ (though not the only word for our English word patience). It means to bear up under pressure. It is sometimes translated ‘persevere.’ I think we get the message.

‘Look at the prophets,’ James says, ‘and all they endured as your example.’ These are the prophets talked about in Hebrews great Hall of Faith who ‘…through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.

God blesses the plodder, the endurer, the patient, the consistent one, the plug away-er, the hold-er on-er.

God says be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

I love the old hymn 'Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.' If I had any kind of poetic or song writer ability I would write a few lines about 'blessed endurance, Jesus is mine.' 

Don’t quit. Just keep on enduring. Keep on keeping on. We don’t need to be superstars. All God requires is that we be faithful