 Hi, this is Pastor David Rosales of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley, California. In the book of Hebrews chapter 10 verse 36, the writer told the believers, you have need of endurance so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. The Greek word that is translated endurance is a word that speaks of patient endurance. And the reason that he is exhorting these believers to endurance is because they have been experiencing sufferings, reproaches, tribulations, and financial losses. And all of this had contributed to their being tempted to just give up. This exhortation to endure is something that applies not only to these first century Christians, but to every Christian who is alive today. There's no doubt that simply giving up and going with the flow of the world is something that believers are daily challenged to do and that many are even now at the point of throwing in the towel and going back to the vomit of the world. Perhaps this is something that you are contemplating because you've discovered that following Jesus can be difficult to do and sometimes it is even terribly painful. Jesus said, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Picking up a cross one time would be challenging enough, but Jesus said we are to do so daily and it is in the daily voluntary dine to self that the difficulties lie. Perhaps you have come to think that God is different than what you originally thought him to be like and somehow you've come to be disappointed in him because he's not exactly what you thought him to be. I think of John the Baptist sitting in prison hearing of the works of Jesus and wondering about him. He had baptized Jesus, had directed disciples to follow after Jesus, proclaimed Jesus to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, but now he's in prison and undoubtedly awaiting execution. Matthew tells us that John sent two of his disciples to see Jesus with the simple question are you the coming one or do we look for another? It would seem that something of the works of Jesus or the words of Jesus had caused John to question whether Jesus was truly the Messiah and it caused him to question whether he had pointed people to the right man. This responded by pointing to his works, works that identified him as Messiah and then said to tell him, blessed is he who has not offended because of me. Blessed is the one who does not try to make me into a Messiah he can believe in. Blessed is the one who sees me for who I truly am. I cannot help but believe that much of the difficulty I've experienced as a believer has come from the times that I have been guilty of forming Jesus into the man I wanted him to be instead of learning about who he truly is and trusting in that he would do something in my life. In some ways believers can still commit the sin of idolatry because we go about fashioning God into our own image when in fact he's allowing things in our lives to be used to fashion us into the image of his son Jesus Christ. Sometimes the chisel that is being used can hurt us deeply. Tozer once said it is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply and I suspect that that is more than true and it's much more than we initially would realize. Many years ago I went through the deepest valley that I had ever gone through and emotional pain was so intense that I simply began to give up. My heart was deeply shattered. My hunger for life dried up and this went on for some time. I was a new Christian and someone had hurt me deeply and I at that time believed that it was something that God somehow could have prevented from happening but he didn't and this broke my heart. I thought God was different than what he actually was and I told him if you loved me you would not have allowed me to go through this pain. If you loved me you would have taken care of my needs and would not have allowed that which I feared the most to come upon me. As I went through the valley of Sahara I picked up the Bible and began to thumb through it arriving at the Gospel of John chapter six. I read how Jesus had challenged some good time followers to eat of his flesh and to drink of his blood and how they said this is a hard saying who can understand it. From that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. As Jesus watched them disappear in the distance he turned and asked his disciples a question that I believe every follower of Jesus will be asked at least one time in their walk with him. He said do you also want to go away? I closed the Bible at that point and prayed and said to Jesus where can I go? I gave up every friend I ever had to follow you. I don't have anywhere to turn. I left it all behind. I then went on to read Peter's words when he said to Jesus Lord to whom shall we go you have the words of eternal life. I still remember placing the Bible on my lap and crying because I knew that the Lord had just asked me the same question do you also want to go away and I like the apostle Peter simply said to him no I will remain with you you have the words of eternal life perhaps you are going through a tough time today instead of giving up hold fast to Jesus trust in his promises and learn whatever lessons he might be teaching you through this season of walking through the shadow in the end you come out of that valley and you will be refined. The fact is what you have prayed that he would do in your life very often is done in times of apparent loss and deepest pain. It is in those places that the Lord seems to get our attention most completely and it is in the crucible of suffering that our lives are refined and our faith is made pure in the end when all seems lost the truth is that God is moving most powerfully it is in our weaknesses that we are made strong and it is in the darkness that his light shines most brightly hold fast to Jesus take joy in knowing that in fact he is holding fast to you remember what he told the apostle Peter in John 13 verse 7 what I am doing you do not understand now but you will know after this God is not asleep he knows what you're going through he has said I will never leave you nor forsake you trust him and remember he loves you this is pastor David Rosales of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley California.