The Secret of Endurance (Hebrews 11:23-27)

Hebrews 11:23-27
What happens when people decide to put the Lord first in their lives and then choose to quit on their walk of faith or the purposes of God because things get difficult? They decide that the Lord is the most important thing to them, but then things become hard and they choose to not follow Him anymore or no longer continue to do the things that He called them to do. Familia, when it comes to walking with the Lord and the plans He has for us we will encounter difficult and challenging times, therefore, endurance truly becomes very important.
Moses was one who endured, persisted and kept walking with the Lord amidst all the challenges and hardship he faced in his life. Surely anybody can simply quit. It is pretty easy to quit, but we need to understand that it is extremely consequential. We can walk out from any situation anytime we want to, but the consequence of that decision is great. Moses chose to endure. He set aside what might have been an attractive life and set aside options to do other things and instead chose to endure difficulties in life for the purpose of the things of God. And the secret of his endurance was the ability to see God and His mighty hand at work.
If you and I can see the hand of God in our times of suffering, if we can see the hand of God in the moment of trial or affliction, then we can endure. When we start to get weak, and we start to question and say, "Why, God?" If we can only just come to the realization that all things are working together for good to those who love God and that God has a purpose. When we understand this promise then we can endure. We can say, "God, I don't understand, I don’t know what to do but You have a reason and a plan."
Endurance requires patience on our part. Patience to stand firm, to stand your ground, to trust God. It also requires time. There are things God does right away, but there are things that are important that seem to take a little longer. In either case, we endure by trusting that in time, God will bring things about.
What happens when I don’t endure? What happens when people chose to quit?
1. It will initially affect your self image. In other words, I never become what God had intended me to be.
2. It will ultimately end God’s blessings. When you or I give up, we will never get to see God’s blessing in our life which often is just around the corner.
3. When we don’t endure and we give up trusting God, then we will miss out on the power of God. We never get to see God do great and mighty things in our lives. If we would just trust Him another day, another hour, another minute then we would not miss the power of God accomplish the things you were believing for. If you decide that you will give your life totally surrendered to God, then you will see His power revealed and released in your life like you have never seen nor imagine to be possible.
4. You are saying that “I can’t trust God anymore.”
5. You will end up putting your focus, your devotion and energy on the wrong things.
What can I do to live a life of endurance? What can I do to live a life of trusting God everyday and walking in His will?
1. Never surrender to anything but to the will of God. Choosing not to surrender to what I feel, not to what people think about me, not to what other people think I should do, not to anyone but only to God and His will.
· Joshua 24:15 “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
2. Never settle for partial victories. Don’t settle for anything less than God’s perfect will for my life.
3. Never forget the promises of God.
· When you and I see the Lord working His promises in our lives, then the giants in our life doesn’t appear to be so giant after all.
· 1 Samuel 17:37 “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”
4. Never lose sight of what the Lord can do.
· Ephesians 3:20 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”
· The Apostle Paul was confident with the ability of God. Too often we see our problems in light of our ability to handle them. We measure the seriousness of a situation according to our own limited power to deal with it and not with the unlimited ability of God to deal with it. Therefore, we fall into despair and then quit. It is so important that we truly learn to look at things according to God's ability.
· Hebrews 11:17-19 “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, Through Isaac shall your offspring be named. He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.”