James 5:11—The impact of endurance

We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the baystatewire.com viagra endurance of Job and viagra 100mg comparer les prix peron.tv have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. James 5:11

We count those blessed who endured.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). Because of your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, you are blessed, before, during, and after every trial, despite the outcome. It’s a standard feature of your new birth. But there is something uniquely remarkable about the man or woman who endures to the end under hardship, oppression, false accusation, or outright persecution. God counts all of His children blessed; we count those who endure blessed. Faithful endurance seems to crank up the “bless-o-meter”.

I think it has something to do with the thing called grace. Those of us who know the Lord are aware of how abundant His grace toward us is. We were saved by grace; we remain saved due to the sustaining continuance of His grace. Without His grace, we would all be, as my pastor often says, “burnt match heads”. When we fall (I’ve lost count of the spills I’ve experienced throughout my life), God’s grace is there to pick us back up, dust us off, clean us up, soothe our wounds, and put us back on the path. But as James wrote in chapter 4, verse 6, “But He gives a greater grace.” Those who have endured through thick and thin have learned the secret of accessing God’s greater grace. And that sets them apart from the pack.

You have heard of the endurance of Job…

 No one in their right mind would want to swap places with Job—at least during a certain two years of his life. The things that happened to him over a short period of time and then lingered while so-called friends accused him of bringing it all on himself would have driven many of us to complete hopelessness and despair, to the point of—like Job’s wife advised—cursing God and dying (see Job 2:9).

This woman viewed the very beginning of Job’s two-year stand of endurance—and despised him for it. In the same verse she raged , “Do you still hold fast your integrity?” Don’t be surprised if others mock your desire to stand fast in the Lord when under an attack. The natural way is to give up. The carnal method is to ditch the Word and get mad. The fleshly thing to do is to wallow in self-pity. And yes, Job was tempted to do all of the above—and even dabbled in a bit of it, too—but he kept coming back to his first love, God. After approximately two years, Job emerged from his ordeal. But not until he had endured the following:

• Sabeans raiding all his donkeys and levitra vergleich viagra oxen and killing all of those servants
• Chaldeans raiding all his camels, killing all of those servants
• His oldest son’s house collapsing on top of all of Job’s children in a huge windstorm, killing every one of them
• Being covered in painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head
• A foolish, antagonistic wife
• Three friends who told Job that he brought all of this on himself; they were pushing him to accept the blame for what he didn’t cause

A fourth man, Elihu, witnessed the escalation of all of the accusations as Job and the other three clashed against one another. When he had heard quite enough, he stepped in in an attempt to bring order and stop the blame game; and then the Lord spoke. He set Job straight: “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you instruct Me!’” (Job 38:1-3).

The Lord then arrested the finger-pointing of the three friends as well, saying to one of the men, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has. Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept him so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has” (Job 42:7-8).

… and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings…

“The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold… The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and advice 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. He had seven sons and three daughters… In all the land no women were found so fair as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers… And Job died, an old man and full of days” (Job 42:10, 12-13, 15, and 17; emphasis added).

…that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.

James wrote, “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:12). The Lord is with you in the midst of every difficulty. As you choose to cling to Him and tune out the voices—both from others and yourself—to “curse God and die”, you will be strengthened by His mighty power to access His greater grace—the grace that will power you across the finish line.

Enduring to the end is rarely ever pretty. It is gritty, sweaty, agonizing, often lonely, very often tear-drenched, and in extreme cases, bloody. But the end of endurance is this—the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.

Listen to the prophet Jeremiah who endured nearly constant persecution at the hands of those to whom he was sent: “Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:21-23).

Don’t give up. Run your race with endurance; when you have finished your course, you will receive the crown of life. We count those blessed who endured. You are called to be in that company.

Dorothy