Are you ready to quit? Quit your job, quit the ministry God has entrusted you with?
Or maybe you’re ready to throw in the towel on your marriage or that difficult child?
This past year, I had the privilege of traveling to the Middle East, where I met women with the most astonishing stories. One woman shared with me that during the 1968 Israeli war, she was five years old, and her family had to flee on foot through Egypt to the country I was visiting to escape persecution. They lost everything. She met Jesus in the country she fled to.
Another woman missionary I met was recently given twelve hours to evacuate from one Middle Eastern country to the one I was visiting. She had only been serving in that nation for three weeks when her family was given evacuation orders from their sending agency. The shipping company had just delivered her furniture and crates the day before, and she had to leave it all behind.
Another missionary I met was evacuated from a war-torn nation in Africa. In the next three-and-a-half-years, she and her precious family lived in thirty-eight different places before arriving in the nation I was visiting.
Every woman I met had stories about war, violence, loss, and grief. Yet every believer I met shared their stories with smiles on their faces and hope in their hearts. They had learned a secret of hope: endurance.
Romans 15:4 says, “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (ESV). The Greek word “endurance” is made up of two smaller Greek words: hupo (under) and meno (abide). The meaning of biblical endurance is NOT that we try harder to get through difficult circumstances. Endurance means to come up under our Savior and abide in His love, His power, and His strength. When we know that He is our only hope, our only chance for survival, then we are filled with hope. Endurance is a daily choice to rest in His ability, not our own.
What circumstances are you facing today that seem impossible? Don’t quit. Choose to endure and be encouraged. Decide to come up under Jesus and allow Him to bear those circumstances and rest in His power, love, and strength. Our world needs HOPE now more than ever. Let others see His hope in your life of choosing to endure difficult circumstances.
Living in Revival, Vitality, and Mission
Talk to Jesus today about the circumstances that cause you to want to quit. Tell Him out loud that you are choosing to rest in His love, strength, and power.
Remember times when He has enabled you to endure. Celebrate that He is a God of endurance.
Keep your eyes open for one other woman who may need to hear your story.
Share with a fellow believer what God revealed to you, and ask for accountability to walk in the light of His truth.