Warriors of God, Endure!

Warriors of God, Endure!

This is how a familiar song begins in the Almond Blossom Family Songbook #404. It is an appeal that is particularly appropriate for someone who struggles and fights in his personal life and is also working for the gospel and serving others. Endure!

“We must learn to endure in darkness,” writes Johan O. Smith in his article “Wisdom and Service,” published in the September 1926 issue of Skjulte Skatter.

He writes further, “No holy man or woman has ever been spared this darkness of God.” Of course this does not refer to the darkness of sin, unbelief, and despair, but to the darkness in which we see “our own hideousness, which seems to us to be worse than death,” but which teaches us an invaluable lesson. When we read in Psalm 112:4, we see that for the upright there arises light in the darkness—for the one who is gracious, full of compassion, and righteous. This is precisely what God wants to do: lead us from light to light. Let us therefore not think it strange concerning God’s darkness in which light arises for us. We have good reason to thank God for the trials in the darkness of night just as much as for the days of sunshine, as Ingrid Bekkevold says in song #366 in Ways of the Lord. God makes sure that everything we encounter on our way turns out for the good, as she writes in verse 3.

James calls the person blessed who endures in temptation. He who passes the test receives the crown of life—that is, the one who endures in temptation. The crown of life is promised to those who love God. Jas. 1:12.

They proved their love for God by enduring in temptation, and they passed the test! Moses endured as seeing Him who is invisible. Heb. 11:27. This inner vison was the driving force in his work. “If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.” 2 Tim. 2:12. Here we see something of Paul’s inner vision. And Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, endured the cross and such hostility from sinners, with an inner vision of the joy that was set before Him. Heb. 12:2-3.

In Ephesians 6 we read about the devil’s wily attacks, about the battle against the spiritual hosts of wickedness, about resisting on the evil day, about standing after we have overcome all, and about quenching all the fiery darts of the devil. God’s warriors, endure! Let us think of God’s warriors who have gone before us and finished their course: “To us they are calling, ‘Press on and believe! In conflict endure till the crown you receive!’” ABFS #404, chorus, lines 3 and 4.