The Secret of Enduring

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s we poise ourselves for the full marathon of the Christian race, not only must we gather our daily manna, we must

also grow in the Christlike quality of endurance.

We all have desert seasons in God when everything in our spiritual life is dry, dusty, and void of inspiration. The only way through is to make a decision in advance that no matter how tough the slogging gets, we’re never going to give up on our pursuit of God. We’re going to abide in Christ no matter what. I’ll let you in on a secret: This kind of tenacious commitment to endurance will open the path to the most meaningful dimensions of relationship with the Lord.

Seasons not only break the monotony of sameness, they are necessary to productivity. Nothing can live in unbroken sunshine. Constant joy and happiness, with no clouds on the horizon, produces drought. Night is as important as day; the sun must be followed by clouds and rain. Nonstop sunshine only creates a desert. We don’t enjoy storms, but they’re an essential part of a complete life, and the key to victory comes in finding how to weather the storms of life in such a way that they don’t dislodge us from our secret life in God.

Secrets of the Secret Place

It’s easy to endure in the good times. It’s when the hard times hit that our endurance is proven. When times get tough, it’s tempting to neglect the secret place. Jesus, however, mani- fested precisely the opposite tendency. When He was hurting, He sought out the place of prayer. His time in Gethsemane is a great example of this, of which it was recorded, “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly” (Luke 22:44). When Jesus was hurt- ing, He prayed. When He hurt real hard, He prayed even harder. This was Jesus’ secret to enduring the horror of His sufferings. He prepared Himself through prayer to endure the pain. If we respond properly, distress can actually be a gift. Pain can provide tremendous impetus to pray—if we will allow it to catapult us into God’s face instead of polarizing us away from Him.

Paul prayed the Colossian believers would be “strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy” (Colossians 1:11). One of the greatest challenges, in the place of hardship, is to suffer a long time with joy. It’s not possible in human strength! Which is why Paul prayed that they might be “strengthened with all might,” for it takes the might of God to rejoice through long durations of painful hard- ship. Being joyful in suffering is a godly quality, for God Himself is “patience and longsuffering with joy.” Consider how much God suffers as He shares the grief of the world and for how long He has thus suffered! And yet although His suffering is stronger than any of us realize, He is also filled with great joy. Only God can suffer so much with such joy.

When we are called to endure with joy, it is imperative we find the solace of the secret place. Here it is that we are filled and “strengthened with all might” that we might suffer long. Simply put, godly endurance is impossible apart from a well-nurtured secret life with God.

Hardship can be embraced with joy, in my opinion, only when we understand God’s purpose in the pain. “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience” (James 1:2-3). The only way to be joyful in trials is through “knowing”—knowing God’s purpose in it. How do we learn God’s purposes in our sufferings? The

The Secret of Enduring

secret pursuit of God in His word is what will reveal purpose to us. As we see how He carried Bible saints along through their hardships, we begin to see His heart for carrying us through to the same kinds of glorious victories. The thing that enabled Paul to endure his “thorn in the flesh” was God unfolding His purpose to Paul for the thorn. Once Paul saw purpose, he could cooperate with God’s grace.

Paul coined a fascinating term, “the patience...of the Scrip- tures.” It’s found in Romans 15:4, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” The original word for “patience” (Greek, hupomone) means, “constancy, perseverance, continuance, bearing up, steadfastness, patient endurance.” The Scriptures are my source of constancy. Every time I return to them, I am renewed in my posture of wait- ing on God alone. Not only do the Scriptures bear me up and enable me to endure, but the witness of of God’s purposes and ways is consistent from Genesis to Revelation. When I see the unbroken pattern of Scripture, that God eventually reveals His salvation to those who endure, I am strengthened in hope. The Scriptures speak of the patience of the saints so frequently that the Scriptures themselves are said to be patient!

The Bible commends those who seek to understand the path God has set for them. “The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way” (Proverbs 14:8). It is in the sanctuary of His presence that we gain understanding into life’s enigmas (Psalm 73:17). The sanctuary of His embrace is where God reveals purpose, which in turn empowers us to endure hardship with joy for we know He is working it all together for good (Romans 8:28).

One of the scriptural symbols for this process is pearl. Pearl is formed within an oyster which has experienced the distress of a foreign particle of sand getting stuck within its shell. Pearl represents the eternally valuable change God works within us in the place of hardship. There is nothing else that changes us quite so readily and profoundly as a devotion to the secret place in the midst of grueling hardship.

Secrets of the Secret Place

The longer the irritant resides within the oyster’s shell, the more valuable the pearl becomes. Therefore, the formative value of tribulation is sometimes directly proportional to the duration of the crucible. The longer the distress, the more valuable the pearl. It is the confidence of this reality which empowers us to persevere with joy. When we endure in love through hardship, we qualify to enter the gates of pearl—for the only way to enter the eternal city is through the pearly gates of “treasure perfected in hardship.”

The apostle John provides a gripping example of the reward of enduring in the secret place, even in the face of hardship. In his old age, John was exiled to “the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:9). There can be no question that he struggled in his 90-year-old frame with the rigors of an island prison. He suffered in his body, felt the pangs of loneliness, and inevitably felt like he was ending out his days in pointless futility. Merely existing on this island was not his idea of a strong finish in the race. However, instead of succumbing to self-preoccupation or discouragement, he “was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day” (Revelation 1:10). In other words, he was proactively enduring the hardship by devoting himself to his secret place love relationship with his Beloved.

What was God’s response to John’s endurance and patience? God honored him by granting him an unparalleled revelation of the beauty and glory of Christ Jesus (I am referring to the Book of Revelation). It was as though God was saying, “I honor those who give their love to Me in the secret place while persevering in the fire of hardship and suffering. I reward them by empower- ing them to behold the light of the knowledge of the glory of My majesty that is found in the face of My wonderful Son.”

Don’t ever give up! Today may be the day when He rewards your devotion with a sublime revelation of the eternal glory of the Man, Christ Jesus our Lord! Through the might of God’s Spirit, any hardship can be endured with joy for the extravagance of such a reward.

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