Perseverance and Growth: The Path to a Rewarding End
Ecclesiastes 7:8
Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
I think here of the words of the song writer who once said, “It is better farther on!” For the child of God, though we will never become completely immune to troubles and heartaches, yet we should go from strength to strength, from victory to victory, from mountain top to mountain top, from grace to grace. It does indeed get better the farther down the journey we travel with our Lord! It is amazing with every battle we face, to watch and know that as the battles get more challenging, even so our Lord shows Himself all the mightier! What gets better is not necessarily the level of comfort or the lack of opposition, but that sweet fellowship we share with our Lord Jesus! We may indeed grow weaker, yet in our weakness, He gets stronger. Your beginnings may have started off a bit rough and rocky, yet rest assured that as long as you learn to depend upon Christ, your end shall be better than your beginning! Job 8:7 says, “Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.” I find such comfort in these words, knowing that our present pain shall be traded for future gain! It is through struggle, pain, agony, and travail that life begins. This pattern continues through the developmental stages of life, until at last years of awkwardness, embarrassment, and immaturity are traded for years of maturity, productiveness, and honor.
Never forget that there is always a process involved in moving from infancy to adulthood, be it your career, your ministry, your marriage, or whatever the case may be. Zechariah 4:10 asks, “For who hath despised the day of small things?” Nothing great ever started out that way! Don’t give up, for your breakthrough could be just around the bend! What God has spoken in your life SHALL come to pass, and not one devil in Hell can stop it! You may have to fight for it, but you shall overcome through the power of Christ! What God starts in our lives, He also finishes, so even when we feel like giving up, He is always there cheering us on, encouraging and strengthening us to go another mile. Let us endeavor to run this race with patience, until the day that things are at last better than they have ever been!
~ Pastor Gary Caudill
Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
I think here of the words of the song writer who once said, “It is better farther on!” For the child of God, though we will never become completely immune to troubles and heartaches, yet we should go from strength to strength, from victory to victory, from mountain top to mountain top, from grace to grace. It does indeed get better the farther down the journey we travel with our Lord! It is amazing with every battle we face, to watch and know that as the battles get more challenging, even so our Lord shows Himself all the mightier! What gets better is not necessarily the level of comfort or the lack of opposition, but that sweet fellowship we share with our Lord Jesus! We may indeed grow weaker, yet in our weakness, He gets stronger. Your beginnings may have started off a bit rough and rocky, yet rest assured that as long as you learn to depend upon Christ, your end shall be better than your beginning! Job 8:7 says, “Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.” I find such comfort in these words, knowing that our present pain shall be traded for future gain! It is through struggle, pain, agony, and travail that life begins. This pattern continues through the developmental stages of life, until at last years of awkwardness, embarrassment, and immaturity are traded for years of maturity, productiveness, and honor.
Never forget that there is always a process involved in moving from infancy to adulthood, be it your career, your ministry, your marriage, or whatever the case may be. Zechariah 4:10 asks, “For who hath despised the day of small things?” Nothing great ever started out that way! Don’t give up, for your breakthrough could be just around the bend! What God has spoken in your life SHALL come to pass, and not one devil in Hell can stop it! You may have to fight for it, but you shall overcome through the power of Christ! What God starts in our lives, He also finishes, so even when we feel like giving up, He is always there cheering us on, encouraging and strengthening us to go another mile. Let us endeavor to run this race with patience, until the day that things are at last better than they have ever been!
~ Pastor Gary Caudill