Run with endurance

Many people have an excessively romantic view of Christian life. They think it should be one uninterrupted series of mountain top experiences. They read Christian books and magazines, hear personal testimonies of dramatic events, and conclude that this is all of life. In their dream worldThe word is used with different meanings. It can mean the whole of humanity (Gen 41:57) or the created world (Rom 1:20), but also a moral system that is opposed... More, there are no problems, heartaches, trials and perplexities. There is no hard work, no daily routine, no monotony. All is Cloud nine. When they find that their life does not fit this pattern, they feel discouraged, disillusioned, and deprived.

The true facts are these. Most of the Christian life is what G. Campbell Morgan calls “the way of plodding perseverance in the doing of apparently small things.” This is the way I have found it. There has been a full share of menial tasks, of long hours of disciplined study, of service without apparent results. At times, the question has arisen, “Is anything really being accomplished?” Just then, the Lord would drop some token of encouragement, some wonderful answer to prayer, some clear word of guidance. And I would be strengthened to go on for a while longer.

The Christian life is a long-distance race, not a 50-yard dash, and we need endurance to run it. It is important to start well, but what really counts is the endurance that enables us to finish in a blaze of glory.

Enoch will always have an honored place in the annals of endurance. He walked with God—think of it—for 300 years (Gen. 5:22). But we need not think that those were years of undiluted glamor or uninterrupted thrill. In a worldThe word is used with different meanings. It can mean the whole of humanity (Gen 41:57) or the created world (Rom 1:20), but also a moral system that is opposed... More like ours, it was inevitable that he should have his share of trials, perplexities, and even persecutions. But he did not grow weary in well doing. He endured to the end.

If you are ever tempted to quit, remember the words of Hebrews 10:36, “For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise."