Learn to persevere

The furnace of affliction is burning us to produce endurance. Some Bibles translate this as patience, but that is too pale a term. This word endurance is the word of persevere, of boldly pressing on, regardless of the circumstances. You might be struggling to put one foot in front of the other and continue down that path, but you do continue. The Bible teaches us that we enter heaven only through endurance. Now, we know that endurance is by God's grace. We know that our legal right to heaven is in our standing in Christ Jesus, but it is God who has revealed to us that the entrance is through our endurance. And that is why our fathers refer to the preservation of the saints as the perseverance of the saints. And you see, it is the trial that improves us, because God is making us walk. He is working in us to put one foot in front of the other and to continue on and press on, regardless of the pain, the obstacles, the difficulties, so that we might learn to persevere.¹

Joseph A. Pipa