Written by Dawn Rutan
I was recently reading the book of Revelation and particularly noticed the words Jesus wrote to the seven churches. In brief summary:
- 2:3, 7 (ESV)- “I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for My name’s sake, and you have not grown weary… To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”
- 2:9, 11- “Do not fear what you are about to suffer… Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life… The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.”
- 2:13, 17- “I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast My name… To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.”
- 2:19, 26- “I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first… The one who conquers and who keeps My works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations.”
- 3:3, 5- “Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it… The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”
- 3:10, 12- “Because you have kept My word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming… The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of My God.”
- 3:19, 21- “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent… The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with Me on My throne, as I also conquered and sat down with My Father on His throne.”
The believers are reminded repeatedly to keep enduring as there are eternal rewards for overcoming. Although these are great and wonderful promises, I still have a hard time finding motivation to keep enduring. The problem is that this life is the only one we are familiar with, so to wait for something better yet to come doesn’t always make sense, especially when it is so different from what we’re used to. We can’t begin to wrap our minds around the descriptions of eternal life in Scripture, so we cling to the things of earth more tightly than we should.
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” However, the afflictions of this life rarely seem light or momentary when we’re going through them. They often feel like heavy boulders instead.
We are living in the “shadowlands” (to use C.S. Lewis’s term). Ultimately, the things of this life are going to be forgotten as we encounter the solid reality of immortality. In the meantime, we need constant reminders from Scripture and from fellow believers that these difficulties will not last forever and something better is coming. I can’t imagine trying to live without daily doses of the Word and frequent encounters with encouraging friends, particularly as we digest the Word together.
Despite my affinity for Paul Simon’s “I Am a Rock,” I know it’s just wishful thinking to believe I can make it through this life and all its challenges without the support and help of my family in Christ. The boulders get heavier the longer we try to carry them alone.
It’s worth noting that the letters in Revelation 2-3 were written to groups of believers, not to individuals. Community is essential to sustained endurance in difficult times. I have little doubt that the Jews and Christians kept in concentration camps such as Auschwitz fared better than individuals kept in solitary confinement.
If we’re going to endure to the end, we need to encourage, uplift, pray for, and strengthen one another through whatever difficulties may come.
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! …And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, 12).
