Endure part 2
As always, I think my message is a simple one: Receive and release the gift of God. What is true about God is true about us. He has given us... Himself. His Spirit. His Son. His nature. His love. So when we're talking about enduring, a verse like 2 Thessalonians 3:5 in the Message Bible is very important. "May the Master take you by the hand and lead you along the path of God's love and Christ's endurance." Because it's not OUR endurance that matters. It's Christ's endurance. And the understanding that His endurance IS our endurance, when we stop trying to do things ourselves and simply receieve and release what God has given us. What God is doing in us. It's the same thing I preach when I talk about faith. All "your" faith needs to do is connect you to God's faith. Because when, "Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23), I believe He was saying just that. All things are possible for JESUS. So believe in HIM. Connect your faith to HIS faith and it's a done deal. When Jesus prayed the Father answered. We, today, right now, have that same access to the Father. When WE pray the Father listens. And answers. Now, let me say this: Sometimes the answer is "no" when we want it to be "yes." But that's only because God knows what's best for us. And what He knows is better than what we think. And that's not a bad thing. That's a good thing. So look at our key verse again. God takes us by the hand and leads us along the path of HIS love and HIS endurance. Because that's what matters. We endure because HE has endured. We died because He died, right? We live because He lives. It's all about Jesus. Because it's all about love. What is true of Jesus is true of us. When God looks at Jesus He sees us. And when God looks at us He sees Jesus. There is no separation between God and man because God lives IN man. So it behooves us to live in Him. And by that I mean receive the gift we've been given. By knowing it and believing it. By releasing it. Breathing it in and breathing it out. Letting what is already inside come out BY knowing and believing that it is in there. Because what is inside WILL come out. It has to. It is too big not to. What you believe is inside you will always come out of you, because your actions are dictated by your beliefs. If you believe that God can handle anything... then you can handle anything. In Him. Through Him. As Him. If you believe that Christ's endurance is enough to get you through whatever it is you're going through... then you will be able to get through whatever it is you're going through! It's His endurance that carries us through. Look at Jude 1:24, which is one of my all-time favorite verses, "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." God--LOVE--can keep you from falling. It doesn't always have to be falling down and then picking ourselves back up. We don't have to stumble. We can walk that straight and narrow path that leads to life. (If we DO stumble He WILL catch us, let's be clear.) He can hold us. He can endure. And because He is holding us up... WE can endure! Love can carry you through!