Many of you reading this are not caught in some outrageous sin. An extreme moral failure will not be your demise. No, your end will come as you give your soul away, little by little, until nothing is left to give.
In Matthew Chapter 4, Satan engages Jesus, who is weary and tired from fasting. Satan temps Jesus with three things: provision (vs. 3), protection (vs. 6), and power (vs. 9). Satan offers Jesus everything God has already promised Him—only the path is different—Satan offers Jesus a shortcut. Satan wanted to see if Jesus would 'jump' or if He would wait and endure.
An old theologian once said, "Christian Discipline is delayed gratification." In other words, it's the ability to wait and endure.
The Cost of the Cross
In the late Seventeenth Century, french girl Marie Durand was charged as a Huguenot heretic [a Protestant Calvinist]. She was fourteen years old—bright and beautiful—her whole life was before her. During her trial, she was asked to recant her faith. She was not asked to commit an immoral act, become a criminal, or even change the day-to-day quality of her life. The authorities would ask her to 'J'abjure' [recant] daily. And every day, her response was "no."
Eventually, Marie was locked in a tower by the sea, and every day for thirty-eight years her response was "no." After her death, authorities found the word 'Resistez' [resist] scratched over and over into the walls of the tower. If you visit the stone wall at Aigues-Mortes today, Marie's enduring faith is there for the world to see.
Thinking about Marie, John Piper writes, "To sit in a prison room and to see the day change into night and summer into autumn, to feel the slow systemic changes within one's flesh: the drying and wrinkling of the skin, the loss of muscle tone, the stiffening of the joints, the slow stupefaction of the senses—to feel all this and still to persevere seems almost idiotic to a generation which has no capacity to wait and to endure."
Too many of us have lost the capacity to wait and endure. Most of the heartache in my life has come from a position of impatience and lack of endurance. Sex before marriage. Debt. Pornography. Exaggeration. Greed. Abortion. Anger. The list goes on—sin and sorrow born from a state of impatience, having no capacity to wait and to endure. Continually, I forget that one of the most potent weapons Satan wields is the weapon of convenience. Convenience is the great enemy of the cross—we all want the crown's comfort without the cost and trouble of the cross.
I could use the courage and endurance of a 14-year-old girl named Marie. I have a friend who buys and sells real estate wholesale. He has story after story of men and women selling their homes for much less than they are worth because they want/need 'quick cash.' My friend will tell you that convenience is his favorite client.
I wonder how many men today live their lives wholesale. How many men have settled for the quick and easy alternative? Doing things their way in their time instead of God's way in God's time. Entire lives built on convenience—little shortcuts to something God has already promised.
From Strength to Strength
The psalmist writes, "The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand...Wait for the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land..." (Ps. 37:23;34)
Notice that the Lord establishes the steps, not the leaps and bounds. Nowhere in Scripture do I read about 'leaps of faith.' On the contrary, God is continually asking men to take 'steps' towards faithfulness. Steps towards obedience. Steps towards holiness. One foot in front of the other.
Misplaced impatience and unrestrained zeal have no place in the Christian life. Even in doing good, our eagerness can deceive us. The Christian life is less Instapot and more Crockpot—less painting by numbers and more wind carving of stone. As Eugene Peterson said, the Christian life is "long obedience in the same direction." Leaps and bounds is for weight-loss and get-rich-quick schemes. There are no shortcuts to the crown. The cross is the only way. And we get there, step by faithful step—long obedience in the same direction—wind carving stone. We wait, and we endure.
And for those men who think that enduring means giving up, you miss the meaning of endure. Marie did not give up. She did not resign. She resistez. Endurance is not a desperate hanging on but a traveling from strength to strength.
It takes courage and strength to hold when everyone is selling.
It takes courage and strength to abstain when everyone is giving it away.
It takes courage and strength to be still when everyone is moving.
It takes courage and strength to rest when everyone refuses to sleep.
It takes courage and strength to remain steady while everyone wavers.
Everything we need is promised to us in Christ. Jesus endured so we can survive. Resist the temptation to take a shortcut. Resist the lure and attraction of an easier way. The Christian life is an uphill climb—a downhill effort will not do. Thus we go, one foot in front of the other. Step by step, we go about our daily tasks, the mundane and the menial, the difficult and the demanding, confident that God will provide the meaning and the direction. And when the devil whispers "over here," we resist, remembering Peterson's words, "Wait and watch add up to hope."
"Lord, from the depths I call to You. Lord, hear me from on high. And give attention to my voice when I for mercy cry.
Were You to count my sinful ways. How could I come before Your throne. Yet full forgiveness meets my gaze, I stand redeemed by grace alone.
I will wait for You. I will wait for You. On Your word, I will rely, I will wait for You. Surely wait for You, till my soul is satisfied."
Waiting & Watching,
— Harp