Why commit to doing good based on the Word of God when evil seems to get worse and God is committed to allowing trials to grow us? This seems like a never-ending process that can get old very fast. I suspect another way to ask this question is, “Do we want an easy life so that we have a level of satisfaction, or do we want inner spiritual strength so that we experience the power of the Holy Spirit to carry us through whatever life brings?”
For the first part of the second question, I believe that sometimes we forget what it took for people to make our lives easy; “George Stephenson spent fifteen years to perfect the locomotive. Watts worked for thirty years on the condensing engine, and hard rubber cost Goodyear ten years of study, poverty, and public ridicule. Field crossed the ocean fifty times to lay a cable so men could talk across the oceans. Westinghouse was treated as a mild lunatic by most railroad executives. Yet he persevered and finally sold the air-brake idea.”[1][1]
For the first part of the question, we do have some Biblical examples of people who were not committed to perseverance or endurance; “Esau made a bad bargain when he sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. Judas made a bad bargain when he sold his Lord for thirty pieces of silver. Ananias and Saphira made a bad bargain when they sold their land and then told Peter a falsehood about it. Our Lord tells us that a man would make a bad bargain if he were to gain the whole world but loses his own soul.”[2][2]
Endurance or perseverance may not seem like friendly terms, but the results are great! “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:3-5; NIV)
Two frogs fell into a can of cream; The cream was deep and cold. “O, what’s the use?” croaked No. 1. “Tis fate; no help’s around. Goodbye, my friends! Goodbye, sad world!” And weeping still, he drowned. But Number 2 said; “I’ll swim awhile, at least he said, it really wouldn’t help the world if one more frog was dead.” An hour or two he kicked and swam, not once he stopped to mutter, but kicked and kicked and swam and kicked, then hopped out, via butter![3][3]
James says, “Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:3-5; NIV)
Easy is not always better.
[1][1] Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (p. 997). Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.
[2][2] Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (p. 1208). Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.
[3][3] Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (p. 996). Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.
