Patience

What do you do when you fall into trying circumstances that won’t go away?

“Patience,” says James.

“Endurance,” says the writer of Hebrews.

Hebrews 12:1-2 admonishes us to, “run with endurance the race that is set before us.” And we have a Savior who can sympathize with us – one who endured the cross!

Hear Pastor Stan’s devotion to set our eyes on the one who endured as we seek to endure this time that we’re in!

Transcript

Good morning, Crown and Joy family! It’s time for us to come together again for another time of devotion.

Well, the coronavirus has now been going on for several months. For some people that has meant real losses like jobs and loved ones. For all of us, though, it has met putting up with restrictions, being stuck in our homes and having limited contact with strangers and friends alike. We’re all growing tired of the losses, the annoyances, and difficulties that this virus has imposed on our lives.  What do we do when you fall into trying situations that we didn’t ask for and won’t go away?   You know, saying, “I just can’t take it anymore,” won’t help.  It only makes the pain and the struggle worse.  Well James, the Lord’s brother gives us one answer in his letter in one word – patience – meaning endurance, steadfastness. The writer of the Hebrews tells us to run the race of our life in Christ with endurance looking to Jesus who endured the cross.  

Imagine what it was like to be nailed to a cross alive and not have the right to just end life.  Death could take 3-6 hours, even days.  All you could do was endure until death overtook you.  In a way, the coronavirus is like that.  It’s just here and no one can stop it or get rid of it! So we have to endure lifestyle changes or losses no matter how we feel about it. In our culture we are used to being able to affect our lives as an act of the will.  But this is a time when we can only endure. We can’t change it. 

James tells us if we allow patience to do its work in our lives we will actually grow. For the believer, endurance is not something done in a vacuum.  It is something that builds in us maturity and character.  We might not feel it, but it is happening by the power of the Spirit, even as we express exasperation and keep going.  Since we know we have no control over how long this virus is going to be around, we will just have to endure it by the grace of Christ, who endured the cross for us so that we could endure the struggles of our life through him. 

Does that sound unbelievable? No, it is very believable and there are countless testimonies to this truth.  God bless you.