Scripture: 2nd Corinthians 4:16-18
The secret of endurance is like both sides of a coin. It has things that are seen with our eyes and things that are not visible but are felt in our heart.
I looked up the words "endure" and "endurance." The dictionaries use phrases like:
- To hold out against
- To sustain without impairment
- The power to bear life encounters without resistance
- To support adverse forces with not yielding to them
Paul’s words include all those in the earthly life, that may or may not happen to us in our lives, like the strength of one’s body in it’s youth. We see that strength fade away in the aging process of life.
Through this life we need to feed the soul that keeps us health and wise in the Lord’s presence and love. It is in the human body that we suffer many things that weaken us, yet it is the soul that keeps us strong and aware of God’s presence even in our suffering.
Paul was convinced that suffering and adversity happens if we endure them with God’s presence and strength, they are worth the GOAL and the PRIZE we seek: Eternal LIFE! With God as our helper.
Suffering may destroy our body, while with the Spirit with God at the helm of our lives we will win the VICTORY over SIN AND DEATH!
As we look back over our lives, we will all see suffering in many situations. Have you seen them as events that awaken our faith journey? As an event that has sustained us? For we realize that the Lord walk beside us at all times, often holding our hands, but at other times carrying us though that situation, until we can stand and walk under our own strength.
Thomas Wood penned these words:
"I remember.
I remember
The fir tree dark and high.
"I used to think their slender tips
Were close against the sky.
"It was a childish ignorance
To know I’m further off from Heaven
Than when I was a boy."
We all know the countless pitfalls that Paul endured during his journey in life, but he never lost sight or failed to believe that all his earthly suffering, were nothing compared to the glory that awaited him at his death because he endured these pitfalls while being baptized in Christ’s blood and eternal life.
I am as guilty as you are of having slipped into a state of self-pity, asking the Lord, "Why me? Why me?"
Because I was seeing and allowing myself to see only my eyes and not the heart of God. When I have stopped dead in my tracks and look back in all the years of my life, I see countless times God working in and through the pitfalls of my life. Even at birth, there was a struggle for my twin and I. But God intervened.
This reminds me of the poem “Footprints in the Sand.”
"One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
"In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.
"This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord,
"'You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?'
"The Lord replied, 'The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.'… My Precious, precious child,
"I love you and I would never leave you."
-Mary Stevenson
During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints in the sand…
… it was then that God carried you.
How do you see your life? With only your eyesight or through the eyes of God?
For He sees not who we are or how we are living, but who we might become through His living presence and power in our lives.
Lord we thank you for the ability to endure this life’s struggles and pitfalls, for we know they are nothing compared to the JOY and LOVE that You offer and give to each one who acknowledges You as their redeeming God!
AMEN!
Thomas Wood penned these words:
"I remember.
I remember
The fir tree dark and high.
"I used to think their slender tips
Were close against the sky.
"It was a childish ignorance
To know I’m further off from Heaven
Than when I was a boy."
We all know the countless pitfalls that Paul endured during his journey in life, but he never lost sight or failed to believe that all his earthly suffering, were nothing compared to the glory that awaited him at his death because he endured these pitfalls while being baptized in Christ’s blood and eternal life.
I am as guilty as you are of having slipped into a state of self-pity, asking the Lord, "Why me? Why me?"
Because I was seeing and allowing myself to see only my eyes and not the heart of God. When I have stopped dead in my tracks and look back in all the years of my life, I see countless times God working in and through the pitfalls of my life. Even at birth, there was a struggle for my twin and I. But God intervened.
This reminds me of the poem “Footprints in the Sand.”
"One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
"In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.
"This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord,
"'You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?'
"The Lord replied, 'The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.'… My Precious, precious child,
"I love you and I would never leave you."
-Mary Stevenson
During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints in the sand…
… it was then that God carried you.
How do you see your life? With only your eyesight or through the eyes of God?
For He sees not who we are or how we are living, but who we might become through His living presence and power in our lives.
Lord we thank you for the ability to endure this life’s struggles and pitfalls, for we know they are nothing compared to the JOY and LOVE that You offer and give to each one who acknowledges You as their redeeming God!
AMEN!
