“For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” — James 1:3
Thought: Endurance is never learned in theory. It is learned under load. Scripture is blunt: suffering produces endurance.
God assigns pressure because pressure reveals weakness and then strengthens it. The soul, like muscle, grows only by resistance. In that way, you can say that pressure is a privilege.
The Puritans rejected the idea that hardship was a sign of God’s absence. John Owen insisted that affliction was one of God’s chief tools in sanctification, because it loosens our grip on false comforts. Suffering humbles us, slows us, and strips us of illusions—especially the illusion that we are sufficient.
This is why endurance cannot be microwaved. It requires time under tension. Trials that linger do something quick fixes never can: they teach patience, dependence, and trust. God is not cruel in suffering. He is precise. He shapes men by weight, not ease.
Endurance grows when a man stops asking why this hurts and starts asking what God is forming.
Reflection: Where you are tempted to escape, God may be inviting you to stay. What you call delay, God may call development. Endurance grows when suffering is received, not resisted.
Call to Action: Stop asking, “How do I get out?” Start asking, “What is God forming in me here?”
Prayer: “God of all comfort, help me not to waste my suffering. Form endurance where I want relief, and maturity where I want escape. Teach me to trust You under the weight. Amen.”
by Better Man
