TODAY’S WORD FOR THURSDAY JANUARY 12, 2017.
ENDURANCE
DEFINITION:
The fact or power of bearing pain, hardship or adversity; the ability to continue or last; duration.
For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.
Hebrews 10:36.
Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
Hebrews 12:1.
When we think of Abraham we think of him as a man of faith. God blessed him because of his faith. In Galatians 3:9, we read that, “those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”
Abraham not only had faith but he had a faith that endured even when there seemed to be no hope. In Romans 4:18-19, Paul wrote about Abraham’s faith. Paul said, “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him.
Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old and that Sarah’s womb was dead.”
Abraham looked to God in believing faith, obeying God, and waited for God to fulfill His Word even when the circumstances looked hopeless. Abraham endured the race set before him while he waited to receive the promise from God.
It wasn’t until he was an old man that Abraham really understood what it meant to endure. God promised Abraham that he would have offspring as numerous as the stars. Year after year passed and Abraham and Sarah never had the son God had promised. Yet the Bible tells us in Genesis 15:5-6 that Abraham, “believed in the Lord.”
Abraham down through the years kept the eyes of his heart firmly on the Lord and did the will of God. For 25 years he kept in step with God, until at last, when he was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 years old they had the son that God had promised (Genesis 21:1-3).
Why the long wait? Apparently, God wanted Abraham, and us, to learn the connection between endurance, trust and hope. The Lord never makes us a promise He does not intend to keep.
It may take longer than we expect for God to respond. We are impatient and do not like to wait. Waiting takes endurance. It is the sure hope we have through faith in Jesus and trust in God that enables us to endure.
The apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 8:25, “that if we hope for what we do not see, we must wait for it with patient endurance.
Help me, dear Lord, to be a person of endurance. Teach me to wait on You, trust in You and look for that glorious hope with the endurance that only You can give.
Open my eyes that I may see unexpected opportunities to serve You. Help me to be willing to reach out to someone in need that can use any talent that You have given me.
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