Endurance is the result of training.

       This past Sunday, the topic of Sunday School was James chapter 1. Since then I've been thinking about verses 2 - 4. James tells us to "count it all joy" when we find ourselves in various trials. We are to do so because we know that the trying of our faith produces endurance. I'm sure as you have been through trials you have often wondered what the Lord's purpose was in it. I sure have.

       Right now we are going through a financial trial and it seems the first thought that comes to mind is "Have we sinned in the area of our finances?" "Are we being chastened of the Lord?" Had Job's four friends come to visit us, I'm sure that would have been their explanation. I don't know for sure what God's purpose is in this, but I have been thinking about what James wrote...that the trying of our faith produces endurance. Since I have been training for running 10K races this upcoming Spring and Summer, I have noticed something in the physical realm that is helping me to better understand the spiritual realm.

       The writer of Hebrews in Chapter 12:1 likens this life to a race. He tells us to lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily beset us and let us run the race that is set before us. How are we to run this race of life? We are to run it with patience or endurance. How will our endurance be built up? It is built up through the trials we go through. James tells us in chapter 1 and verse 4 to let patience have her perfect work. Let endurance have its maturing work.

       I have noticed in preparing to run a 10K race without stopping it takes endurance. Endurance is something that has to be built up and the only way to do that is to run. Trainers and coaches know what it takes to get a runner ready to run a race in a certain amount of time. Each workout is a trial. The trainer pushes his runner in every workout. Some workouts are more strenuous than others, but each one is designed with the intent of building endurance and making the runner faster.

       In a way I see our Lord as doing the same thing for us spiritually as He takes us through the trials we face. He is preparing us for the future. In years past, I did what I thought was training for running 5K races. I would build up to being able to run 3.1 miles and to a small degree my times were decent. This time I am following a training schedule put out by a world class runner. I am amazed at the difference in endurance I now have in comparison to 5 years ago. When you follow someone who knows how to train a runner the outcome is amazing.


       Our Lord knows how to train us and prepare us for what lies ahead. Trials aren't necessarily "fun" to go through. Just like running the five miles I ran on Saturday wasn't fun at the time. I felt like I was running so slow...barely moving. I wanted to quit and walk, but when I was finished and looked at my time I was shocked. I ran the best time of any distance I have run over 3 miles. The same is true when we go through our trials. At the time it's no fun, our trials may even seem to last forever, but when the future becomes the present we will have endurance to be able to run the race.

       Why did James tell us to let patience or endurance have her perfect or maturing work? The reason is so we may be mature spiritually and complete, lacking nothing. Not only do trials bring about endurance in our spirits, they are also drive us to the word of God. David said in Psalm 119:71 that "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes." Sometimes the only way we will learn God's statutes is while going through trials. Even Paul agreed with these brethren. In Romans 5:3-5 he writes that we glory in tribulations or trials. He knew that trials produce endurance and the endurance produces experience and experience produces hope.

       At the end of my training, Lord willing, I will be running 10 mile runs on my high mileage days. All this training (trials) will have produced endurance. That endurance will have produced experience. I will know that I can run the distance necessary to complete the 10K race (6.2 miles). The experience will produce hope. Daniel Webster says that "hope" is the desire of some good, accompanied with at least a slight expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is obtainable. Hope differs from wish and desire in this...hope implies some expectation of obtaining the good desired, or the possibility of possessing it. Hope therefore always gives pleasure or joy; whereas wish and desire may produce or be accompanied with pain and anxiety.

       I could wish all day long I could run a 10K and never get off the couch. I will never run it. I could desire to run a 10K in under 50 minutes and yet never properly train for it. I would always wonder will I be able to do it? There is the anxiety and doubt. But when I have been properly trained and have endurance and the experience of running the distance, I have the hope or the excited expectation of obtaining it. I believe that running a 10K in under 50 minutes is obtainable to me. How much more true is that in our spiritual lives?

       As we go through trials, think of them as our training runs. The Lord is training us in order to build our endurance. He is giving us experience as we go through our trials and that experience will result in our hope in Him. When we are in the middle of our next trial we will have that excited expectation of obtaining more Christ-likeness. Like David in Psalm 42, we will say "O God, my soul is cast down with in me: therefore will I remember Thee." We will remember previous trials and how the Lord brought us through them...how He showed Himself strong on our behalf and we will say as he did... "Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance."

       What do you think about that? Now that trial doesn't seem so hard after all does it? Especially in the light of Romans 8:28. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God; to them who are the called according to His purpose. I know this financial trial we are going through is simply preparing us for the future. Last week I was ready to quit and walk away. Today I am ready to run! That must have been how David felt after he encouraged himself in the Lord his God.

When your soul feels cast down, remember...

There will be times in our lives when our soul will be downcast or depressed. That is a natural response to overwhelming circumstances. By “natural” response I mean it is a response of the old nature to become depressed.

David was a man after God’s own heart and even he became downcast at times. I am of the persuasion the times he suffered depression were the times he was focused on his circumstances rather than being focused on the LORD.

Psalm 42 and Psalm 43 were written during such times.  One thing I greatly appreciate about David was even though he was a man of like passions as we are, and even though he was overwhelmed at times and was depressed, he always turned to the LORD. At some point in the midst of his circumstances his new nature took over and he encouraged himself in the LORD.

Psalm 42:6 clearly shows that David was depressed, yet immediately he remembered different occasions when the LORD showed Himself strong on David’s behalf.

John Gill, a beloved Baptist forefather, had this to say concerning Psalm 42:6…

Psalms 42:6

O my God, my soul is cast down within me
Which the psalmist repeats, partly to show the greatness of his dejection, though he had not lost his view of interest in God as his covenant God; and partly to observe another method he made use of to remove his dejection and refresh his spirits; and that was by calling to mind past experiences of divine goodness;

therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan;
the country round about it, or rather beyond it; which was at the farthest parts of the land of Canaan, where David was obliged to flee, and where he had often met with God;

and of the Hermonites;
who inhabited the mountain of Hermon; or the Hermonian mountains, as the Targum; see ( Psalms 133:3 ) ; a mountain upon the border of the land of Israel eastward, and which was very high; Cocceius thinks the Geshurites are meant; see ( 1 Samuel 27:8 ) ; here also the Lord had appeared to him, and for him; and

from the hill Mizar;
or "the little hill" ^F11; which might be so in comparison of Hermon. The above interpreter thinks Zoar is meant, which Lot so called, ( Genesis 19:20 Genesis 19:22 ) ; which was near Sodom and Gomorrah: Kimchi thinks it might be Zior, mentioned in ( Joshua 15:54 ) ; but, be it what or where it will, in this little hill David enjoyed the divine Presence; or was indulged with some remarkable favour; from all which he concludes he had no just reason to be dejected and disquieted in his mind: and right it is for the people of God to call to mind past experiences, and make mention of them; partly for the glory of divine grace, and to express their gratitude to God, and their sense of his goodness; and partly to cheer and refresh their own spirits, and prevent dejection and despondency: and delightful it is to call to mind, how, at such a time, and in such a place, the Lord was pleased to manifest his love, apply some gracious promise, or deliver from some sore temptation or distress: all which must tend to encourage faith and hope. The Jewish writers differently interpret these words; Jarchi, of David's remembrance of the wonderful works God did for the people of Israel of old, in drying up the river Jordan, and giving them the law on Mount Sinai, a little hill, in comparison of some others: Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, understand them as a reason of his dejection, when he remembered how the Israelites came from those several parts to the solemn feasts at Jerusalem, which he was now deprived of; and the Targum paraphrases them of the inhabitants of those places, and of the people that received the law on Mount Sinai, remembering God; and so Arama thinks "beyond Jordan" is mentioned because the law was given there; and by the hill Mizar he understands Sinai: and some Christian interpreters consider them as a reason why David's soul was cast down in him, he being in such places as here mentioned, at a distance from his own house, from Jerusalem, and the place of divine worship, and so render the words, "because that I remember thee" ^F12.

David ends this Psalm by encouraging himself to put his hope in LORD. He knew that the LORD was the health of his countenance, his help, his strong tower, his refuge, a very present help in trouble and because of that he was able to say, “I shall yet praise him.”

In this life circumstances will happen that will overwhelm us and when we focus our attention on them we will get depressed too. When that happens we should remind ourselves of instances when GOD has shown Himself strong on our behalf.  Keep your focus on Him…

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

“Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Psalm 61:1-2