The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (Rom. 8:18)
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2Cor. 4:16-18)
Suffering will not last forever, but glory will. Have you weighed the cost of quitting? We imagine we cannot endure anymore. We are tired, frustrated, maybe despairing. We simply want the pain to end, to escape the misery that seems to constantly accompany us. But our present adversity is light and but for a moment in comparison to the weight of eternal glory that lies ahead.
Christians should not tell themselves lies. “I can’t take it anymore. I can’t put up with it.” But that is never true. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1Cor. 10:13). The Lord enables his people to endure, and to say that we cannot would be to call God a liar.
We must repudiate lies and preach truth to ourselves.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Php. 4:13)
For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Php. 1:21)
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Gal. 2:20)
There will be days when we think we cannot make it, cannot go on, cannot survive a moment longer. But our times are in the Lord’s hand. He wrote every day of our lives in a book before the first one began (Ps. 139:16), and he wrote the end of our story too. Frodo expected to perish on Mount Doom, but the author had more work for him to do before he would depart to find rest in the Grey Havens.
Most of us give-up far too easily, much too quickly, and if we did not, if we have endured for so long, why would we now choose to abandon the effort having come this far? Finish well. The Lord has not called you to suffer forever. He has called you to everlasting joy! Will sorrow, difficulty, and discouragement keep you from receiving it? Having suffered so much, will you abandon hope as well?
Let every ache, pain, disappointment, discouragement, betrayal, and failure remind you that better days lie ahead. Rather than discourage us so that we quit, suffering should be the catalyst that drives us onward. We have not suffered so much only to suffer forever. We will not surrender our hope for the life that is to come. Pain and sorrow may accompany us in this life, but it will not follow us into the next. The Lord has called us to glory, and by God’s grace, we will persevere and enter in. --JME
