If you are a believer you have found that living in this world is no picnic (at least it shouldn’t be). The world is no friend of grace. It is repulsed at our doctrine and recoils at our Christian response to events. They are okay with us as long as we “go with the flow.” It is when we are swimming against the current that they are bothered and put out by us. Some believers have accepted this and continue in their plodding toward the kingdom while others have given in to the pressure of the world and have turned around to get along with the world’s ways and their way of thinking. Why do we do this? (Because we all do to some extent or at one time or the other.)

I believe the answer lies in the fact that we have grown tired of the struggle. Our expectations have changed. The enthusiasm has worn off for going at it God’s way. We reason that God should let up and give us a vacation from the pressure the world is putting on our lives.

A writer of Scripture that reminds me of this is Jeremiah. Now if anybody had reason to throw in the proverbial towel on following God it would have been him. After all, we call him the “weeping prophet.” He struggled with what God was up to and even questioned the Almighty. One particular passage that comes to mind is Jeremiah 12:1-4. In this passage he is questioning the justice of God. His question (v. 1) is good, “Why does the way of the wicked prosper?” Good question, but God’s answer (v. 5) is better, “If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses?” God was saying in essence, “If you think you got it tough now, what are you going to do when the pressure is really turned on?”

God’s answer is a statement about endurance…about the long haul. Friedrich Nietzsche got it when he wrote, “The essential thing in heaven and earth is…that there should be a long obedience in the same direction.” This “long obedience” will be difficult in a world that bombards us with fast food, thirty-second commercials, microwave popcorn, and GPS shortcuts. But endurance in the Christian is absolutely essential. Fortunately the Bible is full of instructions on how we can make it on this tough faith journey. All we have to do is crack open God’s Word and meditate on His roadmap for our lives.

Grace & Peace, Scott