Your Daily Slice

 

TEVET 19

For the Long Haul

 

“knowing that pressure works endurance …” (Rom 5:3)

 

Endurance falls into that list of things we are hesitant to pray for, a list that includes, among others, patience and self-control.  What is interesting is that the Greek word that is translated as ‘endurance’ in our opening verse is the word hupomonē (Strong’s G5281), and most often we do find it translated as ‘patience’.  However, hupomonē also carries with it the implication of extreme joy and gladness while being patient and enduring – a characteristic that seems hidden in most Torah observant believers today.

 

Endurance basically equates that you are in it for the long haul, that you are committed to seeing this through to the end of the road.  Be that as it may, why would pressure produce patient endurance?  Probably the best illustration I can give you is that of a woman in labor, straining to give birth to her child.  I would surmise that labor is some of the most intense pressure that anyone can imagine, yet the prospective mother is committed to seeing this through to the birth of her baby.  And it takes a tremendous amount of endurance to deal with the pain and pressure of labor, pressure that continues until such time as the infant is born.

 

So it is with us, those of us who are in the process of “working out our own deliverance with fear and trembling” (Phi 2:12).   I find the similarity in a picture of a cross-country, endurance race.  Runners must first know themselves, their weaknesses and strengths; then they must pace themselves as they run the course laid out for them.  Many cross-country races have mandatory check points, where each runner must stop, re-hydrate, and submit to a cursory medical exam before embarking again on the course.  And if a runner has not adequately trained and prepared for this race, he/she might not make it to the first check point before collapsing, having failed to build up the necessary endurance to even compete in the race.  And it happens; we have all seen it happen with those who profess to be disciples of the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

 

Where do we receive our training, and how do we prepare?  It is all found within the pages of the manual, the divine instructions in moral and righteous living, the Torah.  The more committed we are to the walking out of these instructions, the greater our endurance will become, and we will finish the race.

  

“Therefore, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also get rid of every weight and entangling sin. Let us RUN WITH ENDURANCE the race set before us, focusing on Yeshua, the initiator and perfecter of faith.” (Heb 12:1-2 TLV, emphasis mine)

 

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