Resilience

In these challenging days, we sometimes find ourselves with a confused and divided soul. When this occurs, I take a deep breath and remember that the sacred Scriptures are a story of sacred love, made complete through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.  This love is broad enough to cover every sorrow, every disappointment, and deep enough to fill the worst pain imaginable.   

As 2020 evolves into a kaleidoscope of events, some brightly colored and others dark, the constant promise is that each will be more interesting than the next. Every experience leaves an impression on the soul as though a unique spiritual fingerprint has touched the physical heart. The new artwork portrays a changed mind, one yearning to know Him more and to be transformed by the significance garnered from the joy or pain of the moment.  

In Romans 15:5 we read, “He is the God of patience and comfort.”  William Barclay defines the Greek word hupomone used in the verse as “Patient endurance, not the ability to sit down and bear things, but the ability to rise up and conquer them.  God is He who gives us the power to use any experience to lend greatness and glory to life.  God is He in whom we learn to use joy and failure, achievement and disappointment alike, to enrich and to enoble life, to make us more useful to others and to bring us nearer to Himself.” I read this for the first time decades ago, but it has continued to be an important message of resilience for me.

Resilience is the product of understanding that the omnipotent power of God is available to enable every believer to endure through circumstance, against the crowd, and in spite of our own carnality. God’s power upholds all of creation, governs all creatures, and is never tired. Surely, He is able to hold you and I securely in His Hand. The Scripture paints a vivid portrait of this in Isaiah 40:28-31. I read it over and over, year after year, and I share with you the truths that continue to empower me:

Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary; His understanding is unsearchable. Oh, we have heard, but when we look about at what is happening in the world, we begin to doubt. Be confident in this:  the everlasting God transcends all time. His power reaches beyond where man is able to exist, even to the “ends” of the earth. He doesn’t get tired or become weak. His source of power is incredible and unending.

He gives power to the weak and to those who have no might He increases strength. What an amazing exchange He offers:  Our weakness for His power. Our weariness for His endurance. The promise is real and readily available.

Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not be weary; they will walk and not faint. Those who wait on the Lord know that resilience is a choice we make to:

• Exchange our power for God’s
• Expect Him to come through
• Be confident in our worldview
• Believe He will manifest Himself in a given situation
• Know He is worth the wait

To Mount Up is to fly higher and stronger, above the circumstances of adversity and disappointment. To run victoriously is to overcome laziness in spirit, in mind, in body, and the carnal self; to accomplish goals with a strong heart and spirit of excellence. And to walk and not faint is to traverse through the noise of the culture without losing confidence in a sure biblical worldview.  

When I Wait on the Lord; I expect Him to pull through. Persius said, “He conquers who endures.” I say, as we go through the last quarter of 2020, let’s not run up to the tape, let’s “run through.”