"ENDURING" - Part 2
Question: Does chastening have to be uncomfortable?
Answer: Yes, any kind of rebuking or chastening is not
pleasurable. Why… because we are being reproved for a wrongdoing,
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.
James 2:12 –
Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall
receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to them that love Him.
Question: Is this saying that temptation is good? I always
thought that to be tempted was bad or was a sin?
Answer: Temptation is only tempting because we have that lust
for whatever it is in our own hearts. To be tempted is neither good nor bad; it
is whether you give into that temptation or not that decides. The Bible says
that Jesus was tempted in all things. Jesus was tempted to not go through with
the suffering of the cross because of the pain, anguish, and separation from
His Father that it would cause. However, it also says that He was without
sin. So no, being tempted is not a sin.
So, if you are tempted and “endure”
through that temptation… not give into that temptation, you are blessed and
will receive the crown of life because you showed by NOT giving in to it that
you loved God more than whatever that temptation was.
Mark 4:16-17
– “And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they
have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in
themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or
persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended.
This is the parable of the sower that
sowed seeds on different types of ground. It describes each environment for the
seed. This environment is the one that was on stony ground. People who have
heard the Gospel, received it with gladness, but… they have not rooted
themselves in it. They stay as people of God for a while but then, because they
have not committed themselves to God and made Him their foundation for their
lives, when troubles come, when persecutions come, when the cares of this world
come, they don’t “endure”. They give up and throw in the towel. That is not
enduring til the end… enduring is going through it and hanging in there until
it is finished.
Question: What does this have to do with my life in the here and
now?
Answer: You have to "endure" in dealing with your
faith. You have to "endure" with being patient through
situations and with people. You have to "endure" through trials,
tribulations, and temptations. Everyone has gone through something that
caused him or her to have to wait, to be patient about, to continue especially
when it is hard. That is something that everyone must learn and some people
more than others.
Everyone of us will go through issues that will test our
faith so much so that it will cause us to look back at the old man of sin that
we use to be and deceive ourselves into thinking that our lives weren’t as bad
as it was back then. We will go through trials at work, in the home, with
family, with friends, with enemies, with associates and business partners, and
even with strangers. We will go through personal mental, physical, emotional,
and spiritual peaks and valleys. There will be times when our patience is
tested so far that we will have to rise up, be strong, and just suffer through
the evil that comes.
If we don’t learn how to endure and we
give up every time things get difficult, hard, painful, or uncomfortable, then
we’ll never learn patience, we’ll never be strong, and we’ll never be able to
make it through anything that causes us stress or anxiety. We will never make
it… PERIOD!
Each one of us is going through the
refining fire to get rid of the dross or unlovely and ungodly things in our
lives. Fire burns. It hurts. It isn’t a pleasurable experience because a part
of us is being annihilated. BUT, it is for the best. We are going through the
fire to become like Jesus more and more with each thing that is gotten rid of
within ourselves and in our lives that is ungodly and unlovely.
So, even though things seem to get too difficult,
just remember that God will not give you more than you can handle and in those
tempting moments, He will provide a way of escape so that you will be able to
stand. He will make a way for you to endure through circumstances. You just
have to be willing to do it by surrendering your will to His. Jesus said, “Not
my will but thine”.
Question: Are you willing to say the same thing to God today?
Your Answer: ...
Join me again as we cover
“Waiting on the Lord”