Endurance in Christ!

When we are physically verified, we normally get weaker as our endurance is tested. We have all watched the Comrades Marathon and you see it clearly, the gun sounds with all beginning their race, cheerful, laughing and with smiles on their faces but before long the grimaces are clearly evident. Even the most experienced athletes begin to show fatigue. Our bodies have been designed in such a way that the longer we plug away at something the harder it gets. But it is not so for the Christian, sure many may blunder along the way, I suppose for many of us this is needed to teach us to depend upon our God. Nevertheless through it all the Christian grows in strength as the journey progresses. Our faith is strengthened the longer we walk with our Saviour; “They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.” (Psalms 84:7) – The harder the Christian is pressed the more they depend upon the grace of the Lord to get them through any given situation.

It is not so for the natural natures of the common man, more often than not the harder they are pressed the more they look for escape. I have not received a monthly salary for many years now and I still have bread on my table. There were times when the pressure got to me and I reasoned with my natural mind ending up in debauchery, this type of reasoning by the grace of God has run its course and that place I never want to revisit. It is filled we sin and hopelessness. This is why we have such a high rate of divorce, alcoholism and drug addiction throughout the world. Our natural minds are slaves sold under sin!

But God who is rich in mercy has afforded the Christian different parameters to govern their lives. It is only when we lose sight of our hope that we find ourselves in the pigs pen eating the slop with the pigs. I know for I have been there! But my God, the forever faithful One has even used those situations to teach me my dependency upon His provision to get me home. Never lose sight of that reality. We are weak and frail, but He is ever powerful and we belong to Him, we have the mind of Christ! This miracle became our reality when we were born again. “He is for us and not against us”! What a wonderful truth, let that resonate deep within your souls.

This is our reality…

“They go from strength to strength. There are various renderings of these words, but all of them contain the idea of progress.

Our own good translation of the authorized version is enough for us this morning. “They go from strength to strength.” That is, they grow stronger and stronger. Usually, if we are walking, we go from strength to weakness; we start fresh and in good order for our journey, but by-and-by the road is rough, and the sun is hot, we sit down by the wayside, and then again painfully pursue our weary way. But the Christian pilgrim having obtained fresh supplies of grace, is as vigorous after years of toilsome travel and struggle as when he first set out. He may not be quite so elate and buoyant, nor perhaps quite so hot and hasty in his zeal as he once was, but he is much stronger in all that constitutes real power, and travels, if more slowly, far more surely. Some gray-haired veterans have been as firm in their grasp of truth, and as zealous in diffusing it, as they were in their younger days; but, alas, it must be confessed it is often otherwise, for the love of many waxes cold and iniquity abounds, but this is their own sin and not the fault of the promise which still holds good: “The youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.” Fretful spirits sit down and trouble themselves about the future. “Alas!” say they, “we go from affliction to affliction.” Very true, O thou of little faith, but then thou goest from strength to strength also. Thou shalt never find a bundle of affliction which has not bound up in the midst of it sufficient grace. God will give the strength of ripe manhood with the burden allotted to full-grown shoulders.” (Charles Spurgeon)

Before long we shall see Him for who He is and what a day that will be!

Signing off

Tyrone