All successful people and heroes from movies or books that we enjoy share 1 great character trait: they endure to the end. You see, it’s easy to start something and it’s easy to be in the thick of something. But it’s hard to stick something out until the end. Closing something out and seeing to the end is the most difficult part of everything, isn’t it?
Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. (2 Timothy 2:10 ESV)
If you have ever given up on people, let this be a reminder to you that you need to stick it out until the end. I know that you haven’t really “given up” on people in the sense that you banish them from your life and move them into the lowlands far and away from your day-to-day. But I’m sure you have “given up” on people in other ways like I have, when you blow up on them because their personalities irritate you or you treat them with disrespect in a rude and demeaning manner because they won’t give you what you want when you want it; just think about the last time you spent any time on the phone with customer service, or at a bank, or a restaurant.
If we are to live as Christ followers, doing life like Christ did, then we need to stick it out with people, no matter how much we want to give up on them. When Jesus’ disciples quit on him at the very end, he didn’t quit on them when he pursued them when he rose again. The Apostle Paul says, “I endure everything… that they also may obtain salvation… in Christ Jesus.” What if by sticking it out with people you don’t want to stick it out with, they are able to receive the good news of Jesus and accept him as their savior? You would be a hero for sticking it out.
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