Spiritual Endurance

January 16, 2017

This week I have been pondering about this phrase that keeps coming to me, "spiritual endurance". Every time I open the scriptures, hit my knees in prayer, and sacrifice my will for God's will, I am building my spiritual endurance. Spiritual endurance increases our capacity to hold fast to our faith when trials and test hit us. My answers don't always come in the timing I hope for, but my spiritual endurance helps me to stay strong until those answers or at least peace can come. It is like running a race, when our own personal strength runs low, that is when the training kicks in and carries us through. When every muscle in our body is aching for rest and to give up, we can keep going because we know we have run this distance time and time again, we know we can do it so we keep going. It is the same in our spiritual race, when our faith starts to dwindle from the weight of trails we can rely on our diligent scripture study, our relationship through prayer with God, our knowledge of things to be true that maybe we can not feel at that particular moment- our spiritual endurance keeps us moving. And just like with any sport, if you stop practicing and stop building that endurance, it will be gone much faster than the work it took to acquire it. We never know when the next race in our life will be and we will need to rely on that spiritual endurance so I hope we can all do the hard things now to be able to keep going when time get tough. I love this verse from the New Testament James chapter five verse eleven:

11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. 

Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; 

that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy."

 

all my love, 

Sister Neeley