“They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)
It’s more than a statement about the future, although it’s at least the future—as our Lord promises, those who die with Him shall rise with Him into the bodily joy and freedom of His victory over death. Yet even now, as Isaiah declares, faith (the resurrection pressing into “now”!) brings with it a virtue that we sometimes call endurance.
You see it in very human ways all the time: where a hope or dream motivates people, it can often inspire them to endure great physical distress until they reach their goal. Perhaps you could simply call it grit: suffering produces grit in those who live by a hope greater than their own comfort.
This dynamic that we see in an everyday way comes to its finest expression in the Lord’s way. He’s given us a great hope, the promise of a new life and new creation in Him, disclosing His friendship with us now and forever—indeed, Christians should never forget the startling promise that His Church will rule with Christ in the world to come. Such promises are the Church’s grit, its youth and strength, its reason to endure and press forward in confidence.
LET US PRAY: Grant me strength, Lord, to endure patiently all that I may bear in this life, setting my eyes not on things that perish but on Your Word, which never fades. Amen
Pastor Steven K. Gjerde
Zion, Wausau
