(Audio)
You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised.
Faith is more the a feeling. Endurance proves that point. Feels are fickle and they fail us. But faith trusts in the hidden reality even when transient emotions are not present.
We are not among those who draw back and perish,
but among those who have faith and will possess life.
Faith is how we don't give up at once when we begin something and don't get immediate results.
This is how it is with the Kingdom of God;
it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day
and the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.
Faith reveals the true value in things which seem to small and trivial to make a difference.
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.
By faith we endure while we await the growth of the hidden seed, even as all sorts of different conditions transpire above the surface of the soil. By faith we are able to trust in the value of the mustard seeds we are given to plant in the world. We may not see their full growth at all ourselves, but if it is Kingdom seed we know they will provide shade and shelter as God intends.
It's one thing to talk about endurance. It's another thing to endure suffering and lack of results. What should we do when times get hard and it seems that all we have is faith?
Take delight in the LORD,
and he will grant you your heart's requests.
(Suggested memory verse. - Psalm 37:4).
Let us seek to find the LORD's will more and more in our circumstances. It is his will that faith make us grow. When we believe that the LORD is at work in us we can at least delight in that even if we feel dryness or desolation. We can believe that what the LORD is doing is worth it for us. This delight may start off as a mustard seed, but there is enough in it to give us shade and shelter in hard times.
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