Hello there. Good morning once again. I hope you have been good. There is something very important that I would like to speak to you about today. It is something very crucial to this extremely important journey that we are both presently on. As you read once again, I pray that you find inspiration, motivation, wisdom, guidance and direction to work with even in this new week. So come on dear. Let’s get reading.
One word that particularly captures the essence of this very post is endurance. Endurance! Endurance!! Endurance!!! According to the Merriam-webster dictionary, endurance is the ability or capacity to withstand hardship or adversity. It is also the ability to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity without quitting. That is what endurance means. Note that there is no exemption of stress or difficulty on both definitions. Endurance is sustaining yourself through hardship and difficulty. If there is nothing hard, difficult or challenging to overcome, then it can’t really be termed as endurance, can it?
Endurance… This word is mentioned severally on different occasions in very different circumstances throughout the bible. Now if it were not important it wouldn’t be mentioned right? Well, let’s find out why. Beyond simple difficulty, it is staying when things are tough. Sticking it out with God even when things are really bad. Going through a lot of stuff, some which may seem very unreasonable and foolish to others. Like I said before, suffering is the essence of endurance. There is no endurance for something you don’t have to suffer or struggle for. With God, there are times when everything is just so smooth and good. Everything is so rosy and chill. There is enough money, food and relationships. But suddenly, everything just changes. There is always a season of endurance in every man’s life. What you do with it and how you react to it is very important.
The journey to endurance may be unexpected and sudden, but it takes your determination and self-resolution to actually endure a thing. Joseph had a rosy and beautiful life being Jacobs preferred son. But everything changed for him the moment he was sold. Even in that slavery and temptation, it was first his will power and then the grace and help of God that he was able to scale through all the schemes of Potiphar’s wife. One thing that particularly struck me was what he said when she was pestering him so much. (Genesis 39: 8-9 AMPC) “But he refused and said to his master’s wife, see here, with me in the house my master has concern about nothing; he has put all that he has in my care. He is not greater in this house than I am; nor has he kept anything from me except you, for you are his wife. How then can I do this great evil and sin against God?“ What this says to me, is that a person who will endure the trials and hardships of life successfully, is someone who has the fear of God instilled and ingrained into their very being. You can’t endure successfully without the fear of God.
One thing I have heard repeatedly from Bishop David.O. Oyedepo is this “there is no star without a scar. The scar of every star is sacrifice“. In a modified context according to what we are speaking about, I would say the scar of every star is what he has had to endure. Every great man has had something so great he has had to endure and go through. The process of endurance is what makes great men. It was said about Jesus in (Hebrews 12:2) KJV “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. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds“. Even Jesus our Lord and Saviour endured something. It was His own endurance that led Him to be the author and finisher of our faith who is now seated at the right had of the Father, making intercessions for us. Without His endurance, there probably would be no salvation.
The joy of the Christian journey is endurance. There is always a blessing or reward attached to every successful season of endurance in any man’s life. For Jesus, it was the salvation of the world, for Joseph, it was the position and fame of Prime minister. Everyone that has patiently endured gets something out of it in the end. Holy endurance is never a waste. “I know all that you’ve done. Now I have set before you a wide-open door that none can shut. For I know that you possess only a little power, yet you’ve kept my word and haven’t denied my name. Watch how I deal with those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews but are not, for they’re lying. I will make them come and bow down at your feet and acknowledge how much I’ve loved you. Because you’ve passionately kept my message of perseverance; I will also keep you from the hour of proving that is coming to test every person on earth. “ (Revelations 3:8-10). For the Church in Philadelphia their reward was keeping and protection.
There is an endurance course on your journey to greatness. There is a promise for all those who will patiently endure with God. “those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever“. (Psalms 125:1) You have to trust God even in your own season of endurance. Trust Him to bring you through.
Dearly beloved, though the mourning may last for the night, if you keep your eyes on the coming morning and focus on its light, you will get through the night. That greatness you seek, you need to struggle for it. Because though a great and effectual door is opened to you, there are many adversaries. All that resistance is what you have to endure through. Keep going!!! Keep Grinding!!! Keep pushing!!! Don’t turn away from Him. I will see you again at the end of this season of endurance. See you soon!!!
Your beloved partner in Growth,
xoxo P.
