As a child, I had to walk 10 to 20 minutes to get to school. In sunshine or rain, sleet or snow, and we had all of that weather. When I was especially cold and wet, or my shoes hurt my feet or I had to go to the bathroom, I would count off the landmarks that showed I was getting closer to home, encouraging myself to make it to the next one, imagining myself at home and comfortable. Just keep going and you'll get there. In the meantime, I had to keep walking, keep believing I'd get there, and keep a determined attitude.
It's a practice the Bible describes as patient endurance.
"... Abraham walked behind his sheep and goats, waiting, hoping for the promised son."
Patient endurance is what we do in the meantime while we wait for God's will to be worked out in our lives. Because God has an eternal perspective, His "meantime" can be a lot longer than ours. Abraham and Sarah, already elderly at 75 and 65, certainly well past childbearing, received a promise of a son. God declared he would be a blessing to all the peoples of the world (Genesis 12:2, 15:1-4). Considering that, after decades of marriage, they were childless, this was an audacious promise from God.
Twenty-five years passed until Isaac, the son of the promise, was born. In the meantime, day after day, week after week and year after year, Abraham walked behind his sheep and goats, waiting, hoping for the promised son. The Bible records four times in those 25 years when the Lord appeared to Abraham, repeating and affirming His covenant. Abraham needed to practice patient endurance as he waited for the Lord.
Patient endurance is about attitude and faithfulness, whether we are in hard circumstances or simply in God's waiting room. Rather than demanding an immediate solution and stewing in my own juices, as I'm focused on what I want or don't have, patient endurance requires waiting or suffering without complaining or getting frustrated and angry.
It defines our response to God amid inconvenience or great trial. The apostle Paul, writing from a Roman prison, continually talked about giving thanks and rejoicing, despite facing violence, imprisonment and deprivation. He reminded the Philippian Christians, "Do everything without complaining and arguing" (Philippians 2:14, New Living Translation).
Full disclosure, I struggle with this. I can be easily upset by small inconveniences and annoyances, sending up a sarcastic, "Thank you, Lord!" when we both know I am not the least bit grateful. The expectation that things should always go my way, and God should make that happen, trips me up time after time. Learning to be sincerely grateful has lowered my blood pressure and opened the door to developing other virtues in my life. As I cultivate an attitude of gratitude, I have to humble myself, bowing to God's will in the moment and depending on the Holy Spirit to maintain a joyful outlook. God doesn't owe me anything — a handicapped parking spot or a day of good health. Yet He lavishes His love, mercy and goodness on me.
"... patient endurance requires waiting or suffering without complaining or getting frustrated and angry."
As we practice patience, we are able to endure, to stand up to the stresses of daily life and the hard trials of suffering that come to all of us. Just as patience partners with humility and gratitude, endurance is developed through faithfulness and diligence. In the face of an overwhelming circumstance or just in a season of waiting, do what's at hand to do. Be faithful in what you already know God has given you to do and do it to the glory of God. When God gave Abraham the promise of a son and a homeland, he didn't build an altar, sit down and stay there. He traveled throughout the land of Canaan, caring for his family and household, encountering God at different places along the way.
Joseph received a wonderful vision from God as a teenager of being raised up from the youngest, least important in his family, to being the ruler of them all. But it took many years for that to come to pass. In the meantime, Joseph suffered many hardships and losses. In each of those situations, he worked hard, was faithful to his earthly masters and to the Lord. God developed him into such a leader that he was second only to Pharoah, ruler of the greatest nation of his time.
Going back to Paul, it's inspiring to read about his missionary journeys and see the gospel spread and the church grow. We get the highlights reel. But, in the meantime, how many hours and days did Paul spend trudging along dusty, stony roads in the heat or sleeping outside in the cold? How many days or weeks did he spend recovering from a flogging, beating or stoning by an angry mob? He kept getting up the next morning, praying, preaching, teaching, doing what the Lord called him to do.
Maybe, you have an example from your own life of someone who exemplifies patient endurance. My own dear Mom raised three children as a widow on a small Social Security pension and doing childcare in our home. Every morning she was there when we got up for school and she was there when we got home in the afternoon. In spite of our meager means, living in a housing project, I never knew a hungry day or a lack of clothing. Mom was faithful in making a home for us, caring for us, no matter her own health challenges or loneliness. My two brothers and I are college graduates and had a good start in life because of God's faithfulness expressed through my mother's hard work and diligence.
I frequently refer to one of my favorite verses when I'm tempted to complain or murmur about my circumstances. "Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that He has promised" (Hebrews 10:36, NLT).
In these difficult days of confusion and hardship for so many people, it’s important to remember that small inconveniences and overwhelming trials are a normal part of the Christian life. God uses suffering to conform us to the image of Christ. Paul and Peter spent hours writing to new believers facing imprisonment and death for their faith in Jesus, exhorting them to hold fast to that faith and keep pressing forward.
For me, knowing that Christians all over the world are facing persecution that I can barely imagine urges me to "take a new grip with (my) tired hands and strengthen (my) weak knees. Mark out a straight path for (my) feet … " (Hebrews 12:12-13, NLT, emphasis mine).
In the meantime … will you join me in the Christlike pursuit of patient endurance?
Michelle A. Melchor is a writer and lead editor for Cru Inner City. She has served with Cru for 49 years.
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