Endurance
As Christ warned, the world is becoming increasingly dysfunctional. We are seeing the seeds planted over a long period bearing fruit. He also said that as the world experienced the beginning of sorrows, that attention would turn toward the people of God.
Directed toward us, Christ said that “… he who endures until the end shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13).
Endurance is not an easy thing to do. It means staying firm in the face of unpleasant or difficult processes or situations. We must have something firm that we resolve to stand on. That is the first important part of the process of enduring.
Christ outlined the broad details of God’s people being hated, persecuted and some being killed. These are difficult situations in which to stay focused on the important issues.
The continuation of local and worldwide events can draw our attention away from the spiritual base we need to build. Have you wondered why Christ said many would be offended and would betray one another?
I believe that part of the answer would lie in the fact that this is a dysfunctional world. That means that something is not working properly. However, in the scheme of things in this regard, it may not appear as such and can be absorbed as somewhat normal.
Most of us eventually conclude that we grew up in a somewhat dysfunctional family environment. But initially we are not aware of that. We tend to think our family was normal, especially if other families around us were similar.
It can be a similar situation in our spiritual family. Due to our upbringing, we can adopt something that is not working properly (from God’s perspective) and assume it is normal. For example, start a conversation with other members on sensitive subject such as voting, birthdays or politics and you may find you have opened a pandora box of attitudes and ideas. Yet should not each be defined in terms of God’s perspective, which provides a common approach?
We need to see EVERYTHING from God’s perspective – not the way we think is right. Determining what is God’s perspective is critical to enduring. His perspective is the solid base from which we need to evaluate what is going on around us. “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes…” (and to make the point that there is another way of seeing things) “… but the Lord weighs the hearts” (Proverbs 21:2).
Don’t let the dysfunctionality of this world become the way we assess life. We need to be building a solid base of knowing what the will of God is so that we have something we can use to endure until the end.
Brian Orchard
