Hope & Faith (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“Enduring Faith is a prolonged attitude of faith under pressure.”
This is the faith that “pleases God.” It is the kind of faith that He will REWARD both now and in the age to come. (Hebrews 11:6) Most of the epistles address this kind of faith. The faith that Christians are to have. A faith that takes effort, even determination, on our part. This is a faith that “works” and will “save” us at the Judgment Seat of Christ (James 2:12 – 26).
James 1:3-4 …knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have [its] perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
Romans 10:17 Faith comes by hearing the WORD of Christ.
Enduring faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Hearing implies obeying. When we do what God says in His Word we are walking in and by faith.
There are two English words used to translate the Greek word pisteuo in the New Testament, to believe and to trust.
Enduring faith begins with BELIEVING God’s promises. That is, I understand the promise of God in its context and I accept God’s revelation as true. An example of this kind of faith is Abraham as illustrated by Paul in Romans 4:16-25. Faith is based on the sure Word of God. God’s Word is the foundation of faith.
I then TRUST God’s Promises (pisteuo – to put confidence in). In the Old Testament the word is the Hebrew word Betha – confidence in, with a sense of well-being and security. Hasa – to take refuge in, is also translated with the word Trust.
To trust God means I commit my situation honestly to God. I tell Him how I feel in an attitude of respect. I tell Him what I want and why I want it. And then, I promise to praise His Name in the Assembly.
Psalm 4:4-5 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your TRUST in the LORD.
Psalm 4:8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for you, LORD, only make me dwell in safety.
Psalm 116:17 I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD. 18 I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people, 19 In the courts of the LORD’S house, in the midst of You, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD.
Philippians 4:6 – Being anxious for nothing but in everything with prayer and thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
In this process of faith I must reject feelings of unbelief due to circumstances, because I cannot control my feelings or circumstance, but I can control my attitude with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 62:8 – TRUST in him at all times; you people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.
Psalm 56:11 – In God I have put my TRUST; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
Psalm 9:10 – And those who know Your name will put their TRUST in You; For You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.
Proverbs 3:5,6,7 -TRUST in the Lord with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. (Don’t do it your way!)
Psalm 145:18-20 – The Lord [is] near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them. The Lord preserves all who love Him.
Having put my confidence in the Lord I then HOPE in God’s Promises. To HOPE is to anticipate a Divine response. (An eager expectation, favorable, confident expectation). Bible HOPE is not “wishful thinking.” It is a confident expectation that God will do what He has promised in His Word to do.
Hebrews 11:10 Abraham’s HOPE was in the Lord because “he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” He was not looking to his own earthly contentment but to the much greater contentment of an eternal reward promised by God.
Psalm 31:24 Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all you that HOPE in the LORD.
Psalm 42:5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted in me? You HOPE in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
My eager expectation is tempered with patience. Therefore I must WAIT upon the LORD patiently.
Psalm 123:2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes WAIT upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.
Psalms 130:5-8 I wait for the LORD, my soul does WAIT, and in his Word do I hope. My soul WAITS for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning. Let Israel HOPE in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
What am I waiting for? I am WAITING for God to fulfill His promise, His way. In waiting I allow God time to do His will. He may need to alter the situation I am in. He may rescue me out of the situation. Or He may guide me through the situation giving me the wisdom to endure it.
Jesus is our supreme example. He waited upon the Lord when He went to the Cross and endured the suffering and shame of it. Remember God did not deliver Him from the Cross and that cruel, unjust death, but He delivered through the Cross. He was perfected in His role as our Eternal High Priest and glorified because of it.
Hebrews 5:7 – 10 Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. And He was declared by God a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
Micah 7:7 Therefore, I will look unto the LORD; I will WAIT for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.
Psalm 37:7 Rest in the LORD, and WAIT patiently for him: don’t worry about or fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass.
Psalm 40:1 I WAITED patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
Faith is an enduring process. I must ENDURE in God’s promises by maintaining the cycle of faith while under the pressure of the situation.
James 1:2-3 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience.
Romans 5:3-5 And not only this, but we glory in our afflictions also: knowing that afflictions produce endurance; and endurance produces proven character; and good character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us; because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Abraham, the father of faith, is again our example.
Heb 11:9,10 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Heb 11:13-16 These all died in faith, without receiving the promises, but they saw them from a distance, and were sure of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were foreigners and only temporary residents on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are looking for a homeland. And truly, if they had been thinking of the country from which they came, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
How about you? Will you endure in faith no matter what circumstance you find yourself in? Will you TRUST in the Lord, believing His Word confidently assured that HE will deliver you? Is your HOPE in the Lord? IF so, WAIT patiently for HIM to “work all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Endure to the end. There is a great reward!” Hebrews 10:35-36
“Don’t throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you need endurance, so that after you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised.”
Pastor Dan Carfrey taught me this “faith cycle” many years ago. It has been a blessing to me and I pray it will be to you until we see Jesus. Jeffrey Hawkins
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