November 25

Day 256: Free to Endure

"Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus." Twice in Revelation 14 we read this. Point made! Endure, as one who keeps the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

Endurance is hard to come by today, even on the front end of Thanksgiving weekend. So many are challenged by their outlook and mental health. A Christian worldview is under attack. How can we be and feel thankful, when everything is so restricted and strange and unstable this time around?

It's hard to feel like a winner, when it seems we're constantly losing the battle. It's hard to be thankful, when it seems there's so little to be thankful about.

A thankful heart is a reflective heart. Dissatisfaction and discontent do not make room for gratitude. But for us, a reflective heart leads us away from dissatisfaction and discontent, and toward a revitalized awareness of what is actually our freedom.

Luke 4:18 says, "He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners." It has been proclaimed,. And we have responded, as former prisoners now emancipated, released, no longer shackled, no longer without hope.

While Satan plots to enslave us again, the world's temptations seek to ensnare us, our own deceitful hearts harass and annoy us, and the unseen enemies of Jesus gather in their fury against us, we are, none the less, free.

As Christians, our freedom is not in doubt, not open to debate. The battle is not in gaining freedom. That's been accomplished by the shed blood of Jesus.

No, our freedom is not in question. It's is our realizing and thus living as free people. So often, we're like the prisoner, realizing the prison doors are open and the chains have fallen off, even invited with full permission to vacate the premises, and we choose not to.

For many of us today, our prison is one of our own making. In faith, by the grace of God, we've been released from that prison of no hope...only to replace it with a prison in our own minds, of our own making.

This makes us both prisoner and warden. All the while, Jesus, who holds the keys, tells us we are free. Free from sin. Free from the curse of death. Free from an estranged relationship with our Creator God. Free to love and be loved by Him who gave Himself for us.

Free to endure. Free to rest in the faith He has given us. Free even to be thankful, when circumstances would demand otherwise.

Perhaps our most poignant evidence of endurance today is in our desire and capacity to be thankful. Thankful to God, from Whom all blessings flow. He has made us free to endure. In thankfulness.

-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church Juneau