Champion Endurance

James 1: 3 – 4 (NLT)

For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.

I believe that many Christians today think that no hardship should ever come our way.

We all know that the Bible says that we will all go through periodic tests.

It appears to me, that many believers give up way too early.

Something troubling comes our way, maybe even with someone in the church, and we just throw up our hands, and never deal with the real issues.

When that happens in the church, note that we will never establish endurance.

Endurance comes when the going gets tough—not when the sledding is easy.

I know it sure doesn’t look that way right now, but there was a time many years ago, when I was a state champion track sprinter.

I was also many pounds lighter then, than I am right now.

It took time tested inclement weather and poor track conditions, to get ready for the races that really mattered.

It took hours and hours of training and running, and more running, to produce champion endurance.

When the important races came at the end of the year, I was usually ready to win, because I had trained through the hard moments.

It was usually when I hadn’t trained hard, that I ended up with injury, or even sometimes defeat.

All of us get only one chance at this life, walking every day with Christ.

I’ve just decided I’m going to make every second count, so that when troubling times do come, I want to be sure I’m ready for anything…