The God of Endurance

At certain times we wonder: What is God doing? We can answer that, at least from a high level. He is glorifying Himself because He is glorious, and He is glorifying His people because He is gracious. He reveals who He is and causes us to reflect Him as His image bearers.

One attribute of God that is not usually found in attribute lists is endurance. It needs more attention for two reasons.

When we need hope, because people are hard to get along with, Paul wrote about “the God of endurance” (Romans 15:5). Endurance could also be translated as “perseverance”; it’s the quality/capacity of load bearing over time. God not only invented the idea, it is part of His nature like light belongs with the sun.

If you had the most excellent endurance and intended to display it, what story would you tell? It would be long, difficult, and involve a lot of Democrats.

One of the reasons we need to attend to God’s endurance is because we dare not diminish His glory by expecting Him to fix everything faster. Praise Him for His endurance.

A second reason we need to attend to God’s endurance is because He has purposed to share His glorious enduring capacity with us. It is the same word in James 1:3-4. He adds weight to add endurance, translated “steadfastness” but the same, and that increasing enduring-capacity will have “full effect” so that we will be “lacking in nothing.”

We are lacking if we are not enduring, and we are not enduring if we’re always irritated that the difficulty isn’t at its end.