Endure

“Because lawlessness is increased,

most people will grow cold. 
But the one who endures to the end,
he will be saved.”
Matthew 24:12

Sounds a lot like the warnings and promises in Revelation2:7, 11, 17, 26 and 3:5, 11, 12, 21.  We usually think of enduring when we think of hardships.  Jesus is telling us in Matthew that hardships will come.  But we are to endure – to hold on, to keep faithful, to trust Jesus - in the hardships.  You can begin to prepare your heart now to endure in the hard times.  Abide in the word of God, spend time in praise and adoration, develop a relationship with God.  Build a pathway of trusting Jesus and when hard times come, you will know that you can rely upon the Eternal One.  Determine in your heart that you will be faithful until the end. 

 The good news?  You don’t have to do it alone.  God will equip you (Hebrews 13:20-21) and give you grace and joy in the midst.  I read Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, and I don’t know that my faith would have held out throughout the tortures.  But they were people just like us, with the same God as us, and God allowed them to go to their deaths with dignity and grace.  And He was waiting for them on the other side, to rejoice with them, and to celebrate their homecoming.  Our hope and trust is what will get us through.  Decide now that no matter what this world will make you endure, that you will endure, and that you will be faithful unto the end.