Endurance in the Christian Life
It appears that many Christians have a bit of prosperity gospel philosophy within them. It is easy to assume that because we are now Christians, life will be one of ease. It comes as a major shock to their system that this is never promised in Scripture. Indeed, quite the opposite is true.
In John 15:18, Jesus tells His disciples, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” The immediate reference is to hostility and persecution from people who reject Christ. But this human enmity is only one strand of a wider truth Scripture teaches: Since the fall (Gen. 3; Rom. 8:20–22), the whole created order is under the curse of sin and death. Christians face not only persecution but also sickness, poverty, and the ordinary miseries of life in a broken world.
I have been a Christian and a pastor for over fifty years. During that time, I have seen many godly Christians suffer greatly. I think of one dear lady who, at thirty-three years of age, developed stage 4 colon cancer. She was a wife and a mother of three young boys. She suffered immensely for four years before the Lord took her home. During that time, her faith was her strength. She kept her eyes firmly focused upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
In addition, I’ve known pastors who have been falsely accused and treated unfairly. It would have been easy for them to just throw up their hands and cry out, “Why me, Lord?” but instead they persevered. Something in their life kept them focused on finishing the race well. I think that it was a strong belief in the power, sovereignty, and providence of the God we serve. I’ve often heard people say, “I don’t know how someone faces an issue like this without the Lord.” I would go a step further and say that I don’t know how anybody can face certain situations in life without the assurance of God’s sovereignty and power.
I remember hearing R.C. Sproul say something years ago and reading it in several of his writings:
If there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled. Perhaps that one maverick molecule will lay waste all the grand and glorious plans that God has made and promised to us.1
This has been a source of encouragement to me over the years, whether I was going through something personally or ministering to someone who was suffering and struggling.
We have the assurance that our God is at work to sanctify us and make us more like Christ through all we encounter on this earth.
The truth is that God is sovereign and He is in control no matter how difficult the circumstances may seem. Scripture affirms this truth over and over. Our problem sometimes is that we focus on the circumstances and merely glance toward God, when we should be focusing on God and glancing at the circumstances.
In Ephesians 1:11, Paul says that everything unfolds “according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” To know that God has a purpose and a will that He is actively working out in the world should bring comfort for persevering in the Christian life.
God is eternal and omniscient, and He loves those who are His. David declares in Psalm 37:25,
I have been young, and now am old,
yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken.
Our Father is ever caring for His children—those who are righteous not of their own doing but because they are standing in the righteousness of Christ by God’s grace. In Philippians 3:9, Paul describes righteousness as that which is “not . . . from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God.”
But of course, perhaps the greatest encouragement to persevere is found in Paul’s unshakable conviction in Romans 8:28: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” The Puritan minister Thomas Watson, in his exposition of this verse, emphasizes “we know.” He states:
It is not a matter wavering or doubtful. The apostle does not say, We hope, or conjecture, but it is like an article in our creed, We know that all things work for good. Hence observe that the truths of the gospel are evident and infallible.2
The reality is, in this life we will suffer, struggle, question, and even doubt at times. But we have the assurance that our God is at work to sanctify us and make us more like Christ through all we encounter on this earth. We stand in the assurance of the psalmist when he proclaims, “The Lord reigns; he is robed in majesty . . . Your decrees are very trustworthy” (Ps. 93:1, 5). God will care for and protect those who are His. And as Jesus said, “This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me” (John 6:39).
