Endure part 1
A big part of life is just living. Just showing up. Taking care of business. Doing the things you have to do in order to get from the start of the day to the end of the day. And that, by the way, includes self-care. Self-care is vitally important. You can't let yourself get lost as you go through the grind of day to day life. You have to take time for yourself. Find a balance where it's not selfshness or self-centeredness... but it is you being the best, healthiest you. Let me drop my memory verse for this Rant series and then we'll really get into it. Matthew 24:13, "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Now you guys know I like definitions. The Law of First Mention. Things like that. Really digging into what we're really talking about. So I want to define two of our terms here. "Endure" is number 5278 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "Stay under (behind), that is, remain; figuratively to undergo, that is, bear (trials), have fortitude, persevere." Think about that for a minute. Stay under, or behind. In a safe place. With someone else protecting you. One chapter earlier, in Matthew 23:37, Jesus said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" That's the cry of our heavenly Father's heart--to gather us under His wings and protect us. Keep us safe from all harm. And that, friends, is how we endure. That is how we get through everything we need to go through. We, in a very real sense, hide behind love. And that doesn't mean we cower. Just as rest is not inactivity but Holy Spirit directed activity... "hiding" behind love so that we can endure means loving people. Giving what we've got. Receiving and releasing the gift that we've been given. So. Now we get to that word "saved." It is number 4982 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "Safe; to save, that is, deliver or protect (literally or figuratively):-heal, preserve, save (self), do well, be (make) whole." So while it seems as though anytime religious folk see that word "saved" they immediately think "save us from the devil. Save us from hell" this is a more immediate saving. Save us from what we're going through right now. Help us to survive right now. Help us to endure what has been placed in our path. Help us to hold on. Because when you get to the end of your rope, the best thing you can do is tie a knot in it and hold on! The best thing you can do is realize that as hard as you're holding on to God... HE is holding on to YOU! And He will never let you go. He has sworn to never leave us nor forsake us. We endure--we CAN endure--because He HAS endured. Everything we can do (or are expected to do) comes from God. What He has done. What He is doing. One more memory verse for tonight: "Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away" (1 Corinthians 13:8). Love never fails... because love endures. Love never gives up. Love never lets go. Love carries us through whatever we have to go through. Love never fails. Because love endures.