What Does It Look Like To Persevere In Trials?
Perseverance. Endurance. Both are considered admirable character qualities. We admire the marathoner who trains for months, the pianist who practices a composition for weeks, or the artist who pours hours into a single masterpiece. Each one understands what it means to persevere and endure.
But what does it mean to endure suffering?
Before I answer that, let me say what it is not. Life in Christ should never be drudgery, and so, enduring suffering should not be a chore. A long-enduring Christian should not look at their chronic pain, difficult marriage, or endless caretaking of a loved one, and think, I can’t stand it! I hate facing this every day! Often, though, that is the way we respond.
Most people – even most Christians – want “life as we like it.” We want life to be a long string of comfortable days with only occasional hard, painful moments. Life should be easy, and suffering should be rare, we think.
In truth, it’s the other way around. Life is, for the most part, a long string of unmet expectations, interrupted plans, disappointments, injuries, misunderstandings, bruised feelings, pain, and heartache.
Suffering is hard-wired into our broken world.
We can usually face occasional disappointments and injuries with patience, but what if the trial doesn’t let up?
What if it turns into a day-in and day-out problem?
What do you do when suffering becomes chronic?
Well, when a trial warps into an unending part of your life, you need patience over the long haul. When you show patience in trial after trial, day after day, that’s endurance.
Endurance is simply patience proved over time.
As I always like to say, “It takes faith to embrace a trial, but it takes endurance to keep embracing that trial time and again.”
But can we endure it with a thankful, hopeful spirit rather than begrudgingly? James 1:2-4 speaks to this:
“When all kinds of trials crowd into your lives, my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed.”
PHILLIPS
Dealing with certain hardships is a process – a long process – that ultimately cultivates perseverance.
(Perseverance through a long trial means you have endurance; persevering with a difficult person means you are long-suffering). Another translation says,
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”
James 1:2-3 (NIV)
Notice that we don’t count the trials as joyful; we count it joyful when trials come because of what they signal. When you are hit with a distressing trial, it should trigger the awareness that God thinks it’s time to strengthen your faith so you can be more steadfast in him.
This is why you can count it all joy – your ability to keep considering God’s purposes in your trial produces a beautiful and satisfying perseverance.
Or as the Bible puts it, “endurance fully developed.”
It’s what I aim to do every day. Over many years in my wheelchair, I’ve learned that when I endure with a grateful spirit, it changes my outlook. Best of all, it changes my heart.
But if I run to God in my moments of need, he will provide endurance for my trials. Endurance is his gift to me!
I am taught that in Romans 15:5, where Paul calls Jesus, “the God who gives endurance and encouragement” (NIV).
If you are tired and weary from the burdens in your life, if your hardships feel never ending, pay attention to Romans 15:5.
Your hope is not in your willingness or your ability to endure, but in God’s willingness and ability to bestow endurance.
Your hope of “hanging in there” rests in God’s unshakable, unending commitment to never turn away from his work of grace in your life.
The longer I live in my wheelchair, the more I need to remember this. Especially as I age with quadriplegia and my pain worsens.
There are times when I want to ‘resign’ from the whole thing; I feel like I simply can’t handle anymore.
There will be times when you will get discouraged and willingly rebel. You will forget all about God’s grace. That’s when you and I need to remember that we are joined to the One who will never turn away from his work of grace in our lives.
Whether or not you forget, Jesus will always be faithful.
Trust that he will give you what you need to be faithful, too. When hardships expose the weakness of your resolve, and the limits of your strength, don’t panic. Jesus will endure even in those moments when you don’t feel able to do so yourself. Rest in the assurance that he will give you what you need to endure, as well.
Oh, friend, when we persevere through hard times?
Our lives become a glorious doxology to God and the way he graciously preserves his people.
When you keep your hopes bright through a long, difficult trial, you glorify God for how he sustains his people through the worst of times.
When you persevere, your life becomes a resounding praise to God for the way he keeps you “keeping on!” And one more thing. Our perseverance and endurance are inextricably linked to the crown of life God wants to give us. James 1:12 says,
“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”
James 1:12 (NIV)
Perseverance comes with great blessing that will last for all of eternity. If we keep holding fast to the Lord Jesus through pain, disappointment, or whatever suffering, God has a rich reward. It’s a special, unique reward reserved only for those who persevere through their trials. So, pray for endurance!
Pray for God to keep you, preserve you, and defeat every rising rebellion or doubt in your heart.
Ask God to deliver you from the temptation to complain. Ask the Lord to help you wake up with a good attitude about your day. Plead that God will help you not compare your pain to other peoples’ discomforts. Ask the Lord to incline your heart, master your will, and do whatever must be done to keep you trusting until Jesus comes or calls.
Persevere, friend! There is a far greater gain than having your suffering removed. And that gain is Jesus Christ himself.
If Job had known fewer trials? He would have known less of his God. So lean hard into the God of all endurance. Persevere with the One who will endure to the end, no matter what. For as you do, you are a doxology to God’s amazing grace; your life is a chorus of praise to the way God preserves his people.
–Joni Eareckson Tada
Pressing On: How to Lean on Christ through Suffering
After more than 55 years living with quadriplegia and chronic pain, Joni Eareckson Tada knows what it means to “press on” through suffering. Joni encourages you to join her in living out Philippians 3:14: “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
