Thursday 28 September – Protect your progress (2)

Hebrews 10:35 Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward. 36 For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. 37 “In a very little while, he who comes will come, and will not wait. 38 But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” 39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul. (WEB)

I hope that you took some time yesterday to make notes of what God has spoken to you and done in your life during the past two and a half weeks.  If you did not, please do it now!

In verse 36 the writer tells us something that we already know, and, for most of us, we really do not want to hear: You need endurance!  Frankly, I would rather hear from God: Wow son, you have been so faithful and so patient, here is what I promised.  Then He gets out His magic wand, waves it over me, and poof! Everything is finished.

The New York City marathon was first started in 1970.  It is a 42 kilometer run, which is roughly 1.2 times around the Paris périphérique.  There are more than 45 000 people who participated in the run last year, with an average time of just over 4 hours. The winner was Ghirmay Ghebreslassie from Eritrea would did the course in 2 hours and 7 minutes!

The rare times I will go jogging I won’t run for more than 30 minutes.  I can’t begin to imagine what it must feel like to start a pace and maintain it for more than one time around the entire city of Paris!  But that is what is called endurance.

Endurance is NOT a gift; and no one is born with it.  (Stop and think about that for a moment!)  You fight, and you fight hard, to gain endurance.  You put yourself through voluntary suffering to develop it.  You discipline yourself, you stay focused and after years of training you begin to notice that you can go farther than you ever could before.

I am telling you today, by the Holy Spirit, YOU NEED ENDURANCE!  Without it you will eventually become a casualty in this spiritual war.  But with it, not only will you get to the finish line and hear from your Lord « Well done, faithful servant » but you will feel His pleasure while you are running.