Endure: Building Faith for the Long RunSample

Why it is hard to endure

The early years of my life were marked by circumstances that were full of hardship. I was born without arms and spent my formative years trying to learn how to do everyday tasks - writing, eating, opening doors - with my feet instead of my hands. I faced the inner turmoil of comparison, which led me to believe that I wasn’t as valuable as everyone else because of what I lacked. I dealt with the stares and rude comments that came from others when I went out into public. As a fifteen-year-old, my life was immersed in darkness and despair.

Yet in this time of brokenness, God showed me His love for me, revealed in the gospel. I saw His pursuit of my wayward life. I saw His power displayed in loosening the chains of sin and death through His Son’s death and resurrection on the cross. I turned from my sins on a cold March morning and confessed Jesus as Lord. From that moment, things in my heart and life were beginning to change, but they were changing slowly.

It is that slow speed of change that surprised me. I expected to pray a prayer, and then—poof—Everything about my life would be perfect. I thought that if I had this new life in Christ (Colossians 3:4), it would be something that happened all at once, but that is not what happened at all. God was working and moving in my life - but at His pace.

The Father does not work at the pace of our man-made culture. He does not count time like we count days. As Peter reminds us in 2 Peter 3:8:

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day

The Father does not conform His work to our broken perspective of time. He is not in a hurry; we are.

The psalmist gives us this poignant reminder in Psalm 46:10:

Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

When we are still, we see God for who He is. Our busyness crowds out our perception of His grace, movement, and purpose that He is producing in our lives. If we would take a few minutes to simply stop and be still, we could grasp the character of God expressed toward us and His sovereign work in us.

If we still our hearts before God and soak in His character, He is faithful to help us see and endure the long race that lies before us.