Endurance in the Dark

Endurance in the Dark

               ⁸⁴ How long must your servant endure? ⁸² My eyes long for your promise; I ask, “When will you comfort me?” Psalm 119:84,82 esv [When will you come to me “with strength” com- with+ fort-strength.]

           The Psalmist was having a difficult time running the endurance race the Lord had laid out before him. [“let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. . . Heb. 12:1 esv]

He searched and immediately found a couple of things to help him and give him greater endurance. He thought of God's faithfulness and realized that He is always there to strengthen and sustain us. ^“Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast. By your appointment they stand this day, for all things are your servants.” 119:89-91 ^“This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.” 119:50

          And thinking on God's Word reminded him of how much he delighted in it. “If your [Word] had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.” 119:92

In fact when a person goes through a difficult trial or test or is tortured by his own dilemma often there are precious few things that he delights in. But God “takes pleasure” in His works—and we should, too. God takes pleasure in those who love and obey Him—and we should, too. God takes pleasure in being gracious and compassionate—and we should, too.

           Don't be like the author of Ecclesiastes who said, “the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, 'I have no pleasure in them.” Eccl.12:1 The Lord wants you to take pleasure in His blessings, in His gifts with a thankful heart and a song on your lips. God
“gives us richly all things to enjoy.” 1 Tim. 6:17 ^“For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.” Psalm 92:4 God's works of course are His works in creation and in sustaining what He created, but God's works are also His providential care of you every day.

           “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” 119:103,105

“Refused to believe in Me”

        “Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites. The Lord said to Moses, 'How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in Me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?'” Numbers 14:11 NIV

         We live in an age of growing unbelief—in spite of the evidence. I remember many years ago when I was teaching at JBU being confronted by one of my students with an audacious comment. At the end of a discussion of historical evidence and reasoning through an historical problem, he persisted in his previously stated position. So I asked him, “How can you believe that in spite of the historical evidence and logic that we've just discussed?” I'll never forget his response. He said, “I believe it because I want to.”

          [I don't recall the issue we were discussing but it would be like those people who deny that the Holocaust of the Nazi concentration camps actually happened! In spite of all the evidence of eye-witnesses who actually were there and the physical evidence of mountains of human hair and skulls, etc.  and the photographs taken by the Germans as well as by the liberating armies of the allies towards the end of the war, etc. I was 12 years old when the war ended and I well remember the shocking pictures in Life magazine and Saturday Evening Post and other magazines of the day—all of which are still extant now.]

        “I believe that because I want to believe that.” Or “I refuse to believe that because I don't want to believe it.” Need I point out that is intellectual and spiritual suicide? If God has spoken and communicated with human beings, that's got to be the most important development since His original creation when He spoke the worlds into existence.

           You have only two theoretical possibilities to think about: either what the Bible claims for itself is true or it's not. If God in fact did actually speak as the Bible claims, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” Hebrews 1:1-2 ESV If that is true, then it is incumbent upon us, obligatory upon us, to believe and obey it and worship the God who so graciously revealed Himself to human beings—especially because that same God became Man in the Person of Jesus Christ.. So we look at Jesus and we know something of what God is like.

          The other theoretical possibility is that it is not true, that the Bible is a collection of books just like other ancient books. If that's true, then anything goes and we have the intellectual and spiritual anarchy and hopelessness that many believe is the actual situation. Chaos.   "God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. . . ."  1 Cor. 14:33

          But the evidence strongly supports the truth of God's Word and we are not hopeless but instead anticipate the glories that are yet to come as God is working out His purposes in human history for His glory and our ultimate good. 

  1) The impossibility of something coming from nothing points to the existence of our Eternal God in whose hands are the breath of life and all creation.

 2) The existence of the universe and its form, its amazing intricacy and design all point to an all-wise omniscient, omnipotent God. Where did the amazing complexity of DNA come from if God didn't create it!

 3) The obvious truth of the sinfulness of man. The Bible describes us as being sinful and lost without God. The existence of evil is one of the most obviously observable realities we are faced with daily. You see it in yourself as well. And that points to a need for a Savior. And a desire for the Blessed Hope which is yet to come. Paradise and its Restoration. It's all there in Biblical prophecy. 

 4) Fulfilled prophecy. Read Isaiah 53 written 700 years before Jesus was born and see the details and meaning of His sacrificial death on the cross. Or Psalm 22 written nearly 1000 years before he was born. One prophecy after another.

 5) The historical evidence of the eyewitnesses throughout history to whom God spoke and especially Jesus' life. “God has spoken unto us by His Son.” “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

6) We have one other essential category to push you towards faith in the truth of Scripture and that is the witness and conviction of the Holy Spirit in your own heart. ^“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Romans 8:16 ESV The Holy Spirit bears witness to the truth of Scripture as well, for He is the One who inspired its writing.

         Jesus gave a promise in John 7:17 that anyone who is willing to follow Him and obey God will know that He is speaking the truth of God. ^“If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.” John 7:17 ESV

         Do you love the truth or do you run from it? The evidence is overwhelming that God in fact has spoken to us—collectively and individually. “. . . those who are perishing” are lost “because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.” 2 Thes. 2:10 ESV If you want to “hear His voice, harden not your heart.” Heb. 4:7, 3:8,15

            “. . . What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.” Romans 1:19 NIV

         “See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven?” Heb. 12:25-29