James 1:2-4 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Endurance brings a reward! Who would not want to be able to live being “perfect and complete, lacking nothing?” I don’t know anyone who cannot say there were things they wish they had not given up on, instead of enduring through: for instance, a marriage, a friendship, finishing college, going to graduate school, a low-end starting job that had a future.
We have regrets that we did not break through those quitting places. If only we had had that endurance, that perseverance that pushes through! Where does it come from?? The testing of your faith, those promises which you know to be true in the Bible, look at times, like they are NOT true.
One of the greatest stories of Old Testament endurance is found in the life of Job.
Job 1:1-3 (NASB) “ There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.”
Job had a large family and a large business with lots of servants. He honored the Lord and prayed for his children regularly. Then tragedy struck his life. In one day, all his children were killed, his entire business stolen from him, and all of his servants killed. Soon after that, he was struck with a horrible disease that left him covered with sores. He prayed. He cried in torment. His wife told him it was God’s fault and that he should curse the God of heaven. However, Job didn’t curse God, but instead continued to worship Him. He was depressed, and all the while heaven was silent. Job endured.
But like the famous baseball announcer Pee Wee Reese said, “The game isn’t over until it is over!” Eventually, the Lord restored all that Job lost-even twice as much as he lost. Amazing!!!
The life of Job is in the Bible for your benefit. You may think you do not want to read something so depressing. I mean, losing your children? Yet when the New Testament refers to the testing of Job, we are to look at the end of God’s dealing with him.
James 5: 11 We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings; that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.
Endurance DOES bring a reward. What you learn during the testing of your faith is not to make you into a long-faced super-spiritual saint. God Himself will reward you. He wants you to remember that during the hard times in your life.