Endurance
James 1:3 (WEY) Be assured that the testing of your faith leads to power of endurance.
Why bother? Why not just sit back, enjoy a Big Mac or Krispy Kreme donut and watch the Andy Griffith marathon? When those challenges come along that cause your heart to fail and your vision to blur, why not just head for the hills and put an end to the pain by giving up and covering it up?
I love watching those long distance races in the Olympics, runners who, on purpose, submit themselves to what looks to be a very painful and never-ending experience. It’s most incredible to observe the pace that they maintain, not for just a few minutes, but for hours. They speed up steep hills and endure heat and other obstacles that would, in just a small amount, cause most people to be gasping for breath and searching for a nice place to lie down. Even more than just the street marathons, the extreme races are beyond comprehension, where they run for even greater distances over mountain trails and impossible courses. These people, on purpose and by their own choosing, maintain a very practiced and disciplined action of moving their body in a certain manner that has promise of carrying them through the unbearable challenges of the race to the finish line. Since there is only one victor, there is also the understanding that all but the one are enduring all this for the sake of crossing the line, but not necessarily taking the trophy home. Especially those towards the end, it would seem to be an ever-increasing challenge, knowing that many would cross that line before them. Just completing the course must become the focus and the prize itself, no matter in what position. The motion is maintained, no matter the pain or position, and it faithfully carries them ever closer to their hoped for destination. As difficult and painful as pressing on may be, the only thing that will keep them from arriving there is quitting or stopping that disciplined movement that they’ve developed and practiced for so long.
Upon acceptance of Christ as Lord in our lives, we were accepting forgiveness, blessing, and newness of life in Him, but we were also putting on a numbered jersey and entering into a race, the course of which would not just last for a few moments here and there, but actually for a lifetime. There was an action and a disciplined faith movement we were shown in His Word that, if maintained, had great promise of taking us across the finish line with joy and celebration. As steep, long, painful, hot, and impossible the course’s obstacles, the only way failure is assured is when that faith action is given up for an escape to something that might require much less effort or endurance. Rather than despising and avoiding those challenges, they become the very means by which the reward will come and the reason for the presentation of the faith movement given to us by our Father. That action of running with faith’s confession and striding with its love and righteousness is something that must be maintained above anything else, and it is this very action that we will be most tempted to give up on. There will definitely be many other options our own reasoning and emotional response will use to get us off course and going down some dead-end trail. Steady and disciplined keeping to the way the Master has shown us, however, is the only way that prized destination will be reached and its line crossed, no matter the position.
Acts 20:24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.