Endurance for the Journey, Healing, Hope, Perseverance, Words of Endurance
“… and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
HEBREWS 12:1
Running with perseverance sounds easy: put one foot in front of the other and keep going. But how do you keep going when the journey gets difficult?
I know myself as an athlete – as a starting pitcher – my ultimate desire was to throw a nine-inning complete game. In order to persevere through nine innings, I put myself through intense endurance training. There were many days, weeks, and months of preparation to strengthen and build my body to a point where it could endure.
Then on game day, my pregame meal was so important because I needed to consume the right combination of carbohydrates and protein that my body would need for an optimal performance. In order for me to endure, I needed to consume the right fuel.
On a much larger scale for me, running with perseverance through the journey of suffering required the same preparation and consumption of the right fuel in order for me to endure emotionally and spiritually. My fuel? The Word of God.
For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us,
so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
ROMANS 15:4
The Scriptures supply the fuel for endurance through life. The Word of God is more than ink on paper. God speaks to us, changes us, and encourages us through it.
For the word of God is living and active.
HEBREW 4:12
As a young Christian, I was under the teaching of wonderful pastors in Southern California who taught the Word of God. In those early years, I hungered for and devoured God’s Word. I had no idea how the consumption of God’s Word would prepare and strengthen me for what was to come on my life journey. I know I would not have been able to endure without it.
The Word of God – Don’t journey through life without it!
If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.
PSALM 119:92
On the journey with you,
Dave Dravecky