You Have Need of Endurance

Have you ever run a long distance race?

I ran cross-country in high school, and the final kilometer of races were always excruciating. Endurance is no joke.

The apostle Paul likens the Christian life to a race.

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Corinthians 9:24-25).

Paul’s exhortation is that believers should be as focused and dedicated as those ancient runners in the games. But our motivation in serving Christ is much higher; we “run” not for a temporary crown but for an eternal one.

So we should actually have more focus than those training for the Olympics. The gold medalists should have nothing on us and our discipline.

This is not to say that our discipline in Christ is the same thing as worldly willpower. Not so. Paul called it the “endurance of Christ” (2 Thess. 3:5).

It’s a gift from God that we cooperate with as we draw near to Him.

Yet we must renew out mind to this truth many times over. The Scriptures teach us: “the way is hard that leads to life” (Matthew 7:14), and fiery trials most certainly will befall us (1 Peter 4:12). Therefore, “you have need of endurance” (Hebrews 10:36) because “by your endurance you will gain your lives” (Luke 21:19).

I’ve seen far too many people who were on fire ten years ago become lukewarm at best today. Too many who had wonderful prayer lives, extended times in the Word, witnessed boldly, etc. have written some of that off as legalism because they’ve actually lost their desire to do those things.

If they could just rekindle the flame by drawing near to the all-consuming fire! Then their affections would be stirred afresh, and His endurance would be active within them.

I encourage you with all my heart to stir up the love you had at first and endure with ever-increasing zeal!

Read Revelation 2 & 3. That’s the essence of the message Jesus had for most of the churches decades after He ascended: Return to your first love! And endure in your first love!

It is possible to get there if you lean into His heart and tarry with Him long enough to let Him transform you.

Then you will say with Paul…

“I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24).