Brothers, Endurance Is Formed Through Suffering

Scripture: “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance.” — Romans 5:3 

“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.”

Thanks to https://betterman.com/

CONTINUED

Endurance Requires a Long View of God

 Scripture: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases.” — Lamentations 3:22

 “For the LORD disciplines the one he loves.” — Hebrews 12:6

 Thought: Endurance lives or dies on theology. If God is viewed as a means to comfort, endurance will collapse the moment comfort disappears. But if God is understood as sovereign, wise, and good—even when unseen—endurance becomes possible.

The Puritans spoke often of trusting the hidden hand of God. Jeremiah Burroughs taught that contentment and endurance flow from confidence in God’s ordering of events, not from understanding them. God’s purposes are often concealed, but His character is not.

Men lose endurance when they shrink God to their expectations. They endure when they expand their view of Him. A long view of God recognizes that discipline is not rejection, delay is not neglect, and silence is not absence. Endurance is sustained not by explanations, but by assurance: God knows what He is doing. Faith endures when the soul rests in who God is, not in how circumstances feel.

Reflection: Ask yourself honestly: Do I trust God’s heart when I don’t like His methods? Your theology will determine your stamina.

Call to Action: Write down one attribute of God you need to remember today [faithfulness, wisdom, sovereignty]. Anchor your endurance there.

Prayer: “Unchanging God, when my strength fails, let my trust remain. Help me endure not by answers, but by confidence in who You are. Amen.”

Thanks to https://betterman.com/