INSPIRATION FOR ENDURANCE
I met John in a writers’ group, and we often came a little early
and talked. He told me that he used to be a script writer for the television show
Quantum Leap, but when the show stopped, he moved to Vegas. John shared that he
grew up in a Christian family but didn’t believe in God anymore. I’m sure you’ve
known people like this too. People start as Bible-believing children but come
dangerously close to wanting to give up on the Bible later in life.
Traumatic events take place, and God gets blamed. We’re born again
and think things should be going better for us. But sometimes, they don’t go
well at all. The truth is faithfulness isn’t something for the weak-hearted. It
takes some real inner strength to stay faithful, and our faithfulness gets
tested over and over throughout our lives. Faithfulness isn’t that easy
sometimes, but is it worth it? For sure!
Hebrews 11:6 tells us that God rewards faith: “He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
In the big picture of things, our lives are short
here on earth compared to our eternity. “As for man, his days are as
grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth
over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more” (Ps.
103:15).
Though life may seem unbearable at times, God
promises that “there hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to
man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that
ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye
may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13).
In Old Testament terms, “Weeping may endure for a
night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Ps. 30:5). You say, “That’s the longest
night ever!” But God does promise joy in the morning. The word “morning” doesn’t
mean “the very next morning,” like we would tend to interpret it. Instead, it
means “the breaking of light through the darkness.” It’s the “daybreak” when
the sun brightens the morning sky. Metaphorically, the more light, the less
night. And God “is not a man that he should lie” (Num. 23:19).
In New Testament terms, “For our light affliction, which is but
for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”
(2 Cor. 4:17). I looked up the word “affliction” in the Greek. It is a
thronging, crowding pressure. It’s narrow, burdened with anguish, persecution,
and trouble. It comes from a root word meaning a rut or worn track. And isn’t
that how the attacks come sometimes? We get in a rut of affliction, the same
things over and over just beating us down.
When the Bible says “light affliction,” it doesn’t mean it’s no
big deal. The word “light” has two meanings in Greek. The older meaning is just
the opposite of what we think. We think light is mild, but in the older Greek
meaning, it is the opposite. It means that the affliction is more like a
hurricane! It means to be pushed like a torrential wind pushes, and we’ve all
seen videos of the effects of a storm on the eastern shores of Florida and
other states, where the palm trees bend nearly to the ground. This word also has
the image of being like oars pushing in the water, cutting and forcing the
water repeatedly, and not stopping in rhythm or force. The older meaning of
this word also indicates how demonic powers push on us so hard we feel so weak
we can hardly bear it.
This verse is telling us that the Lord understands our afflictions.
Jesus was afflicted in the same ways we are today.
But the second meaning of the word “light” in this verse tells us
that even though these afflictions are at times like hurricanes, we can survive
if we apply God’s truths to our minds. The afflictions we bear now are minimal,
compared to the honor, praise, glory, and joy we will have for eternity.
The following is how Second Corinthians 4:17 is translated In the
Amplified Version: “For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress
of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing
and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure,
excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and
transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!”
Go back and read that verse slowly and let it sink in!
God shows us how to endure the hard times in this life. Read
the Bible and see the many examples of men, women, and children who confronted
adversity and came out on the other side. A great place to start is with the
ordinary heroes found in Hebrew 12.
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a
cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so
easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that
was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12: 1-2).
My friend John from the writers’ group ran into some problems with
his air conditioning one summer, and in a Vegas summer when it’s up around 112
degrees in the daytime and maybe 80-something at night, no air conditioning is
a horrible thing! At the same time, he ran into a problem with his taxes. When
he told me these things, I told him we would pray for him. Before the next
meeting, he called me to thank me for the prayers. Miracles had taken place to
get both problems fixed easily and quickly. I told him God was real, and the
Lord answered the prayers. At the next meeting, He confessed to me that he
thought he just might be a believer. Unfortunately, he passed away soon after
that, but I believe that he got back with the Lord before he died.
Don’t give up on the Lord. Instead, hang in there and try to help
others hang in there too. Faith is a commitment; we will always have the Lord’s
help if we ask.
We do always have Jesus’ help available! Let’s use it. “Help me.
Help me. Help me!” He will. So let’s do our best to stay faithful and help
others to do the same.
Love, Carolyn
Lots of great true-life stories – THE BIBLE APPLIES TO THE
ORDINARY AND EXTRAORDINARY DAY
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