Devotionals
All About Endurance
James 5:11a Behold we count them happy which endure.
Patience always carries with it the element of endurance. You can endure one of two ways. First, you can endure by straining, gritting your teeth--blood, sweat, and tears, and so forth. If there is a closed door, figuratively speaking, you can endure by putting all the weight of your good works against it and trying to force it open. The closed door might be somebody you would like to marry, or at least start a relationship with, or it could be a job or career you would like to pursue, just to name a couple of examples. You don't know if it is God's perfect will for you, but that doesn't matter; you've decided you want it, and you're determined to get it.
I don't think this is the kind of patient endurance the Bible is talking about, especially when there is nothing patient about trying to force a door open. That involves controlling and manipulating people and events for your betterment. As for blood, sweat, and tears, the Lord Himself provided that on the Cross. Even before that, in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed with such force and intensity that His sweat became mixed with His blood. So He has already done the hard work.
The kind of patient endurance the Bible speaks about is simply this: to rest in the Lord and wait for Him to open the door. Just like that. No complicated theology. Yes patience is all about endurance, but it is not endurance in our own strength, or endurance based only upon our good works. That kind of endurance can and will produce self-exalting pride. True Scriptural endurance is all about resting in His strength and endurance, based upon His Finished Work at Calvary. Yes we are to pray; yes we are to search God's Word for insight and direction; yes we should seek Godly counsel. Our part is to ask, to seek, and to knock, and to do it diligently, yet politely. Jesus never gave us permission to break the door down.
Always remember the reason you are asking, or seeking, or knocking is because you are expecting an answer- His answer. You are not doing it to get what you want. When the Lord opens that door, thank Him. But if His answer is that the door will remain closed, leave it at that. If He says no to that boy or girl you like, or job you want, or whatever it is, realize that He must have another door, a better door opening for you. Don't mourn over what He has refused; start thanking Him for what He has in store for you.
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