Endure All Things

Endurance: "rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer."

Endurance = Steadfastness

"Behold we count those blessed who endure. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful."

Love "endures all things."

Exhaustion

Physical exhaustion and spiritual exhaustion often go hand in hand. One can produce the other. As we wage a great spiritual battle, often we begin to feel the inward struggle in outward signs of listlessness and self-pity. Our spiritual wrestling wears out our physical bodies and minds. What are we to do in such a situation? Find help. It is not a sign of spiritual failure to lean on the Christian friends God has given you. It is a sign of spiritual wisdom. It takes great strength to rely on fellow travelers on the journey home. Why do you think God tells us to be sure to spend time with other believers? And I mean "tells us." It's not a suggestion. How can our Christian friends hold us up? Prayer--never hesitate to tell others how desperately you need it. Also, friends can help us by taking on some of our responsibilities from time to time--especially for those of us who haven't learned to say "no" yet. Other people can do the job just as well as you can. They have the same Holy Spirit you do to enable them. And we can also help ourselves by taking time to rest, to find a place of solitude to spend some time with Him. Rest is a holy, sacred obligation for the child of God. Our Savior, who had a body that got just as tired as mine does, often went off alone to rest and pray. Are you exhausted? Worn out by the struggles and responsibilities of life? Don't throw your hands up in despair. Throw your hands up in prayer. And go to those who love you in Christ and ask them to help you hold up your hands as well. They will be delighted to do so. And later on it will be your turn to say, "throw your arms around me and let me help you on the journey home as you so graciously helped me."
To not admit your tiredness and to try to go it alone is arrogance--spiritual arrogance. Is there anything more foolish spiritually than that?

Whim

The Holy Spirit has been given us to guide us into all truth. As we are sensitive to His leading, He teaches us God's truth, explains to us the thoughts of God revealed in His Word, and directs our behavior in line with the truths we have been taught. He is consistent in His directions. Unfortunately, we live in an age that has substituted preference for truth--for faith. We have decided that our personal ideas are legitimate commentaries on Scripture. We fit the Word of God into our lifestyles instead of adjusting our lifestyles to the teachings of God's Word. We have replaced faith with whim.
One of the areas always influenced by such leanings is our attitude toward the world. When we determine for ourselves how to live, we are always caught up in the things of the world and the pleasures we think they can afford us. But the Spirit always leads to righteous behavior. He is not a lover of the world or the things in the world. And there is no excuse for our not knowing that. When I believe that since I am redeemed by grace I can live anyway I please, I am in great error. Such a mindset and the behavior it produces cannot be tolerated by the holy God. As He told the church at Laodicea, He would rather we be cold than lukewarm. I believe that a Christian whose lifestyle is indistinguishable from the world's lifestyle yet claims that that is a lifestyle that the Holy Spirit has led him to is worse than the secret Christian who just lives like the world without claiming to be a child of God. The lukewarm Christian like the nation of Israel in the Old Testament blasphemes the name of God. When our Christian liberty causes us to violate God's truths, we are grieving the Holy Spirit that lives in us. We are sinning against His love for us--and the truth He has taught us. And misplaced love always turns our hearts to the wrong treasure. And the wrong treasure always puts us under the deception of the wrong master. Thus, the longer we pursue the wrong treasures, the more we are convinced that they are the right ones. We live in the dark convinced we are walking in the light. And the only way God can bring us back to the right love and the control of the Spirit He has placed within us is to take away our treasures. Trust me. It is better to live rightly and to love rightly with those other things in their proper place than to lose them all. But our God is a jealous God who loves us enough to return us to the right path for His Name's sake and for our good--no matter what the cost.

Consistency

Consistency is really just being what you ought to be--not being influenced by the situation to change your behavior. If we are Christ-like, we must be consistent. "For I am the Lord, I change not." "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever." God never acts in any way inconsistent with His character.
And that's the key to our consistency--God's character. The problem is that we spend our entire lives trying to sanctify or "spiritualize" the natural man--our character. That's impossible. Why else would the Lord give us a "new creation," the perfectly consistent life of God to live and reign within our hearts? The only way for me to live a consistent godly life is to quit trying to make myself more Christ-like and to surrender to the will of the life of Christ that is already in me in the person of the Holy Spirit. The natural man--that's me--can never act consistent with God's character. The Holy Spirit--God--can never fail to act consistent with His character.

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me."

Beyond All These Things

Paul told the Colossians to "beyond all these things, put on love." The question arises, what are "these things"? What are the things that must be "put on" before I can "put on" love? Obviously they must be highly significant character traits if they are the necessary foundations for clothing ourselves in love. And the ability to put on those things that lead to love is based on our understanding that there are no distinctions in the family of God, no distinctions between those who are in Christ and who have Christ in them. There are no national distinctions, no ritual distinctions, no intellectual distinctions, no societal distinctions. We are all equals in Christ. Each of us as necessary as the other, each as vital as the other, each as loved as the other. Christ is all and in all.
What then are the foundations of love? The first is compassion. Compassion is the ability to automatically be moved by the needs of others without any regard for the character, circumstances, or choices that produced the need. Compassion, without the slightest hesitation, places one's own needs in the background and focuses on how to meet the need of the other.
The second foundation for love is kindness. Kindness never seeks to repay evil with evil. Kindness always thinks in terms of what is the best thing I can do for that person at this time. Kindness needs no reason or excuse to be kind. Kindness is not a "pay back" for an act of kindness done to you. It stands alone without any thought of "payment."
The third foundation is humility. Humility is the ability to readily, joyfully, pour oneself out for others. It is the spontaneous desire to serve others, to be the least in the kingdom of God. It is the determination to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to meet the need of another. Humility is the positive response to God's call to His servants to lay down their lives for Him by laying down their lives for others.
The fourth foundation is gentleness. Gentleness is the desire to stoop down and lift up another, the desire to come along side of one who is in pain and sorrow and say, "lean on me." Gentleness is ever attentive to the cry of the one of the one hundred who has wandered away. Gentleness thrives on restoration.
The fifth foundation is patience. Patience never watches the clock. Patience is never in a hurry and trusts the timing of God. Patience is the ability to love someone where one finds him. Patience endures. Whatever someone does or does not do in response to love affects patience not in the least. Patience waits without ever changing its character.
The last foundation is forgiveness. Forgiveness is the ability to respond to the actions of others as Christ responded, and responds, to our actions. Forgiveness sees the actions of others as paid for by the blood of Christ. Forgiveness sees every hurt as already dearly and lovingly paid for.
Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and forgiveness. All these must be "put on," worn in such a way that all can see them active in our lives, if we are going to be able to "put on" love. If any of these are missing from our daily lives, we have not yet learned love. Perhaps we have not yet accepted the truth that every believer is just as important to God and just as much God's beloved child as we are. The second commandment, "Love your neighbor as yourself," is just the first commandment put in practical, everyday, demonstrable language. We must put on love.

Hindrance

I think that one of the things we struggle with as believers is the refusal to set aside those things that are a hindrance to our Christian walk--be it sin or something I've become more attached to, more devoted to, than to Him and His desire for my life. The refusal to confess sin--a choice that takes me one deliberate step farther into the darkness away from Him--hinders my fellowship with the God who is light. I lose all sense of His presence and the joy and peace that that affords me in my daily walk. The refusal to lay aside for His sake something or someone that has become more important to me than He is--my latest idol--reflects my soul's desire to worship me and my wisdom.
The really idiotic thing about these choices is that they are perceived as a matter of freedom--being in control. The exact opposite it true. Romans clearly warns us that the sins in our lives are chains--bondage, not freedom. Giving into them or holding on to them doesn't fulfill my desire and free me from their stranglehold, but instead, such choices create in me a deepening attachment and dependence. Our not being able to give up the thing that the Spirit has shown us is a hindrance to our walk only proves that it is our master and that we are its slave. It has power over us to control our choices. Power that belongs to the Holy Spirit, the person God has given us to lead us into the way that we should go, the way that sets us free. We wonder at the weight of our struggle toward sanctification when we ourselves are the ones forging the chains around our feet. And the solution is so simple. Confess, let go, walk in the light. And it is something we must do every day.
When I agree with God about the sin in my life--that it is indeed sin, or when I agree with God that something, some person, or some idea is keeping me from full devotion to His right to my life, He sets me free to do what ought to be, and needs to be, done. Such a choice will renew my sense of His presence, bathe my walk in the light of His truth, and reflect to others the freedom and joy that comes from pleasing Him daily.

Eternity

We have the wrong opinion of eternity--of everlasting life. First, we always picture it as something that hasn't started yet, as something future. But eternity has always existed. It is a "now" not a "yet to come." At this moment God sits on His throne in "eternity present" just as He sat on His throne in "eternity past" and just as He will sit on His throne in "eternity future." He is, not He was or He will be. His name is the great "I Am." It was that exact truth that Jesus used to admonish the Sadducees when they tried to make a joke of the idea of eternal life and the supernatural. "I Am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." With that rebuke He silenced those "intellectuals" who tried to deny the existence of eternity. God is the God of the living, not the dead. "He who believes in me shall never die."
And I do not have to wait "to die" to experience eternal life. The moment the Holy Spirit regenerated me and made me a child of God, an escapee from death's sting, I began to live eternal life. I am already a child of eternity. How did Paul put it, "Christ, in you, the hope of glory." And that's an important concept to remember on a daily basis. Often we are told to be careful what we do or say because we do and say it in the presence of God. Yet, for the child of God, it's so much more than that. I do not merely live in God's presence, God's presence lives in me. That's why everything I do is so significant. I am in fellowship with Him--a "partnership," a participation exists. He participates in everything I do. It is no wonder that my apathy toward the spiritual can grieve the Holy Spirit who resides within me. It is no wonder that my failure to spend time in the Word and in prayer leaves me spiritually listless and insecure. I don't allow the Spirit to lead me; instead, I force Him to come along with me. I "drag" him from place to place--and claim He is a burden.
As a child of God, you have begun to live your eternity. You have eternal life now. God's presence is in you. Live in such a way. Live a life dominated by the indwelling presence of God.