“When we could no longer endure…”

What a negative confession!  How could any Christian who understands our authority in Christ make such a statement?  Who said it?  Well, it was the one who wrote about half the New Testament, the Apostle Paul.  Actually, he says it twice in just a few sentences.  You may read about it in I Thess. 3:1-5.  There are times in every life when after we have done all we know to do things still can be difficult.  Things can even be hard to endure.  We may even fight as hard as we know how and still lose a battle! That doesn’t mean you have done anything wrong.  It might even mean you are doing something right!  One of the most misunderstood concepts in the Church is that if things get hard we must have missed the will of God.  Not so!  That is not validated in the Bible.   On the contrary difficulty can often be a sign that we are on the right track and the enemy is attacking our advance upon him.  Remember, spiritual warfare is a real thing and Satan is in the business of resisting those who are advancing the Kingdom of God.  You may say, “Well I’m just working a job, and raising a family as Christians.”  I know and that is Kingdom advancement of the highest order.  Warfare happens most often in the home trying to live for Christ.

When Paul makes these statements it is important that we understand what he did and what he did not do.  He first and foremost, did not quit!  As a matter of fact his concern did not seem to be for himself but his focus was caring for the Church.  There is a real key here to victory in a bad situation.  The protections of our own interests and ourselves seem to work against us in spiritual warfare.  Spiritual power is released when in the middle of a mess we choose to focus not on our deliverance but on finishing the Kingdom task.  It is in that posture that we discover the Kingdom breakthrough and hopefully our own deliverance as well.  While it is fun and it feels good to choose to believe that hardship can’t touch us as Christians, it is not Bible Truth.  We are in a war.  In any war there are battles that are won and battles that are lost.  For us the great motivating force is that we know the war has already been won by Jesus.  We simply remain in the battle and focused on the prize, the Lord Jesus himself.