Jenny and I are struggling a little. Not much is clear and, while I feel God is moving, He has not seen fit to clue me in on what is going on. It has been some time since I knew any of what my future would hold and almost all of MY plans for things have fallen to ruin.
This is where we find ourselves today. Things seem uncertain and we still maintain hope that one day God will bless us with the life we envision. For me that is a ministry leading people in a mission AND enough time to culture my family into well rounded, secure, and faith filled men and women of God that know I love and value them deeply. For Jenny it is security and a family closely bound by the time and experiences they share. Neither of us ask to be rich in money, but rich in blessings.
God willing that dream will be recognized some day.
It is tough to persevere through the mundane routine of life. When nothing seems to be happening and you are faced with a seeming eternity of mind numbing repetition. I am tempted at times to think that this difficulty comes from an ungrateful and malcontent spirit; Hebrews says it is not so abnormal.
32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For,
“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
38 but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
It is easy to see again and again where Paul references the great joy that we share in our active suffering; it is here he explains why. Suffering is an active builder of character and hope, by nature it wells us up to endure and reminds us of God’s love. It forces us to lean on the Holy Spirit and gives us the opportunity to see God at work. After all we know that nothing is a catalyst quite like a martyr.
No the mundane daily life that the Hebrews had fallen into is where an entire chapter is spent exhorting believers not to give up. You can almost hear the readers asking, “What now for us? What's next?” It is easy to feel forgotten in the never ceasing tide of unremarkable time.
So the author of Hebrews says, “Do not throw away your confidence”. A trial builds in us a confidence in God that He is marching us forward in Faith and will be faithful in seeing the good work completed. When that easily marked period of time is over and we are no longer able to easily discern the footsteps we follow, then does our confidence start to wane. It is difficult to have confidence in what feels, at best, like meandering with no particular goal or, at worst, like standing still.
Yet again we are told to have confidence to endure. The Author lets us know that it is difficult to endure unremarked time but that even in this we are doing the will of God; if we endure. Even when nothing seems to be happening we are actively working out our salvation and living as a daily sacrifice. Then he reminds us of the promise.
Again we see the promise of Christ’s return given as our great positive motivation for working in the here and now. Once again this encouragement doesn’t come as a warning to not be found wasting our time lest God should judge us for our inactivity. No we are reminded to endure in confidence because, while the moment we share right now may be completely unremarkable and vague, a time is soon coming that will be the most remarkable thing ever.
Our risen King riding on the clouds in victory to end our daily struggles and strife and bring a final and complete joy and peace. An event that will signal the end of time itself. An eternal moment that is characterized by a remarkable God in a remarkably unhindered relationship with His people.
And then comes what is perhaps on of my very most favorite passages in scripture. In fact it is worth the repeating:
39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
This screams of a rally cry, a warriors cry to arms. We are not of those who shrink back, no as Romans 8:37 says
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
We will not be destroyed, how can we? Again Romans 8 says, “If God is for us who can be against us”? We are of the victorious, we are of those who have faith, who push forward and receive our promised reward. We shall not fail or falter but press on to victory in Christ Jesus, even through the mundane marching of daily life.
And if we wait on the Lord we are promised to soar on wings like eagles. Have you ever seen a bird just about to take flight? There is the joy of a remarkable freedom.
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