"Our call to holiness will require from us a run of endurance, a race in which we do not waver, but continue to obey no matter what trial, temptation, or test comes our way. And lest we think such laying aside and endurance is impossible, we need only look to Jesus. He is the One on whom we must focus our sights while we run this race. He is our ultimate example and witness because He has endured the cross.
This is what Jesus did when He endured: He endured [with unimaginable pain and sorrow] our hostility while we were still sinners, walking in the shame that we deserved. As His children, now we can endure our trials without becoming weary and losing heart. Now we have the power to attack our sin issues by obedience to the Word in full surrender to the One who showed us how to endure. Have you ever considered that? Jesus endured on the cross for us so that we might endure as we take a stand against our most besetting sins and stumbling blocks today. And He did it by focusing on the joy that was ahead of Him, His triumphant return to the Father and His eternal home. Should we be focusing on anything else but Christ and eternity in Heaven? By setting our focus on Him, we can endure until we gain triumphant victory over our sin.
We will never endure as completely as Jesus did, for He resisted to the point of shedding blood. Even if we persevere in surrender and obedience, we will never work so hard as to shed blood as Jesus did. No one has or ever will resist sin to that degree. But it is still our duty and our responsibility to be about the removal of sin and stumbling blocks from our Christian walk with the desire to overcome, master, and gain victory over what satan has used to entangle us."
As I quote this from the book the Lord gave to me, I am challenged once again as I contemplate my level of endurance in 'fighting the good fight.' By introspection, I can clearly see so many areas in which I am still either fighting in my own strength, or worse, not fighting at all. To consider the unfathomable lengths that Christ went to in order to pay the penalty for my sin, I am broken-hearted to find, once again, that I am falling short of the mark when it comes to overcoming the sin that has wrapped itself around my heart, choking out the life of Christ within me. I am faced with my own lack of surrender to the process of sanctification, and that points, with far too much clarity, to my disobedience.
Maybe you are finding yourself in that same place. If so, would you join me today by flexing your spiritual muscles through a prayer of repentance, telling God of your desire to completely turn and face Him as you turn away from your entangling sins? Will you surrender in humility with me today to our ever-enduring Savior as we seek Him and ask Him, once again, to take over the reins of our lives, and live His through us? Will you set your laser-sharp focus on Jesus with me?
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