"ENDURING" - Part 1
Question: What does the word “endure” mean?
Answer: To be, to sit down or sit still, to lodge, to pass the
night, to stand or stand still, to rise up, hold up, be strong, firm, remain,
to bear, carry, remain under, to suffer evil, to be long or patient-minded.
The Bible has a lot
to say about enduring but we will only hit on a few things.
Matthew 10:22 – “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s
sake: but he that endures to the end shall be save.” Matthew 24:13 and Mark
13:13 says the same thing. “He that endures til the end shall be saved.
When I was in grade
school, the teacher said that if she ever repeated something, it was because it
was important to remember. In the Bible, this scripture is repeated many times
and in various ways, not just three. It is very important to know that the
person who endures TIL THE END will be saved.
Question: What end?
Answer: The end of the world at the coming of Jesus and the
redeeming of the saints from the earth.
You see… enduring
requires you to not give up but instead to hold on and hang in there until it
is over, til it is finished.
1 Corinthians 13:7 – “Bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
This is the famous
“love” chapter of 1 Corinthians. It is talking all about what love is and what
it isn’t. It identifies here that love “endures” all things. So, it is not a
flighty “He loves me” one day and the next “He loves me not”. It is a
remaining, sustaining, strong, long and patient-minded decision and feeling
that will go through sufferings but still stands firm.
Hebrew 12:3-7 – For consider Him that endured such contraction of
sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have
not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the
exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, My son, despise not though
the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou are rebuked of him: For whom
the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives. If ye
endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he who the
father chastens not?
Here, in this
scripture, it tells us to consider… think about, meditate on Jesus who
“endured”. He stayed faithful to His called through the persecution that He
received. It tells us to remember this when we are going through the trials
unless we become weary and faint. It also mentions that if we endure chastening
from God, then he is dealing with us as if we are His children. It is a
chastening that is to better us not to injure us, the same way you do for your
child to put him/her on the road to doing what is right. Sometimes we require
chastening and we must “endure” it, patiently accept it, go through the
chastening all the way to the end, to remain under it until what God is trying
to accomplish is complete in us.
Question: Does chastening have to be uncomfortable?
Answer: Yes, any kind of rebuking or chastening is not
pleasurable. Why, because we are being told that we are wrong in what we are
doing, thinking, or speaking. Therefore, we are having a conviction of guilt by
the Holy Spirit, which doesn’t feel good but is for our own good to put us back
on the right course.
Join me again as we go over
“ENDURING” Part 2