Endurance Needed
May 18, 2015
Hebrews 10:35 "So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded."
It is easy to get excited about new experiences, especially ones that change your life. It is also easy to forget those experiences the farther away you get from that experience in time. Years and years may pass and you may not even remember it at all. Many people, when something is important and they want to remember it, write it down in a journal, take photos, talk about it, and celebrate it. Then, because it was so important to them, they pull out their journal and photos, gather their friends and family, and have a reunion to commemorate the event. Every culture and ethnicity does this naturally. It is human to want to remember all the good we experience in our lives. I would submit that we should do the same for our Christian walk.
The Christian walk is one of endurance, because it must last a lifetime. Becoming a Christian should be a memorable event and you should document it along the way with journals, photos, and even celebrations. The reason is not simply so you can reminisce about all the good times you had. The good times are important to think about but it is more important to use those moments of goodness, those epiphanies, those important conversations with the Lord to spur you on in your endurance walk. As time goes by, it is easy to forget what you are doing and why you are here, even how you got here. But the Lord would tell you to remember the times from years ago that propelled you on the path of today. Remember those times which gave you confidence to make decisions and live your life a specific way, the righteous way.
The experiences you had, the confidence you gained must not be forgotten. You need those times to draw upon when the going gets tough. You must be able to draw upon the good in your past to help you in your endurance for the future. The writer of Hebrews understood this when he commended Abraham and Noah. Both of them had an encounter with the Lord that propelled them on a long and arduous path. Many years later, though they still did not see the fruit of that path, they held tightly to those critical moments with the Lord. They remembered them and drew upon them to stay true to what they knew was right. Sadly, I've seen many Christians fade away in their relationship with the Lord and the work they were called to do. Once excited, their enthusiasm waned as time went by. Eventually, they forgot what they were doing and why, leaving it all behind. They failed in the endurance portion of their Christian walk.
Becoming a Christian was the easiest decision I have ever made. It has also been the most difficult decision to STAY a Christian because the tug of the world, the demands of life, and the hard work that must be done, all detracting from the original excitement. It takes endurance to spur yourself on. Read from Hebrews and understand your Christian walk will be greatly rewarded if you hold true in perseverance to the faith and work you were called. It takes perseverance to receive your reward, but you cannot persevere if you forget what you were called to do. You cannot fulfill all the Lord has for you if you don't even remember what it was you were supposed to be doing. I challenge you today to write down all the things you believed in your past and weigh them against your actions today. My guess is you are not fully on the path you intended to travel; the path you knew was from the Lord. If you've stayed from the focused path of endurance, I challenge you to return to that path and pick up where you left off.
Don't take my word for it; look it up: Deut 11:18, Ps 107:22, Heb 10:32-36, Heb 11:7-13
Hebrews 10:35 "So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded."
It is easy to get excited about new experiences, especially ones that change your life. It is also easy to forget those experiences the farther away you get from that experience in time. Years and years may pass and you may not even remember it at all. Many people, when something is important and they want to remember it, write it down in a journal, take photos, talk about it, and celebrate it. Then, because it was so important to them, they pull out their journal and photos, gather their friends and family, and have a reunion to commemorate the event. Every culture and ethnicity does this naturally. It is human to want to remember all the good we experience in our lives. I would submit that we should do the same for our Christian walk.
The Christian walk is one of endurance, because it must last a lifetime. Becoming a Christian should be a memorable event and you should document it along the way with journals, photos, and even celebrations. The reason is not simply so you can reminisce about all the good times you had. The good times are important to think about but it is more important to use those moments of goodness, those epiphanies, those important conversations with the Lord to spur you on in your endurance walk. As time goes by, it is easy to forget what you are doing and why you are here, even how you got here. But the Lord would tell you to remember the times from years ago that propelled you on the path of today. Remember those times which gave you confidence to make decisions and live your life a specific way, the righteous way.
The experiences you had, the confidence you gained must not be forgotten. You need those times to draw upon when the going gets tough. You must be able to draw upon the good in your past to help you in your endurance for the future. The writer of Hebrews understood this when he commended Abraham and Noah. Both of them had an encounter with the Lord that propelled them on a long and arduous path. Many years later, though they still did not see the fruit of that path, they held tightly to those critical moments with the Lord. They remembered them and drew upon them to stay true to what they knew was right. Sadly, I've seen many Christians fade away in their relationship with the Lord and the work they were called to do. Once excited, their enthusiasm waned as time went by. Eventually, they forgot what they were doing and why, leaving it all behind. They failed in the endurance portion of their Christian walk.
Becoming a Christian was the easiest decision I have ever made. It has also been the most difficult decision to STAY a Christian because the tug of the world, the demands of life, and the hard work that must be done, all detracting from the original excitement. It takes endurance to spur yourself on. Read from Hebrews and understand your Christian walk will be greatly rewarded if you hold true in perseverance to the faith and work you were called. It takes perseverance to receive your reward, but you cannot persevere if you forget what you were called to do. You cannot fulfill all the Lord has for you if you don't even remember what it was you were supposed to be doing. I challenge you today to write down all the things you believed in your past and weigh them against your actions today. My guess is you are not fully on the path you intended to travel; the path you knew was from the Lord. If you've stayed from the focused path of endurance, I challenge you to return to that path and pick up where you left off.
Don't take my word for it; look it up: Deut 11:18, Ps 107:22, Heb 10:32-36, Heb 11:7-13
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