The Enemies of Endurance

The Enemies of Endurance:

*Physical weariness
*Emotional frustration
*Mental discouragement
*Fear from threats



This is from Nehemiah (4:10-12). God always asks us to "endure", especially when when the road ahead is dark. He says that when our faith is tested it "will come forth as gold." The Book of James says to "consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face troubles of many kinds, because the testing of your faith develops perseverance, and perseverance must finish its work so that you may be complete & mature, not lacking anything." (James 1:2-4)
But as we all know, the Enemy makes it EXTREMELY difficult to persevere & endure, sometimes in even the most trivial of circumstances.
I think the above list is SO TRUE. The Dark One knows the ways to get us, and he preys upon our emotions, our weariness, our frustrations, & our fears. He knows that we are often too easily swayed & controlled by our emotions, even if we do not mean to be.
Sometimes it is not a direct attack from Satan that wears us down, but simply us living our fast-paced lives, taking little time for ourselves. It is imperative that we each spend some quiet, alone time with the Lord, to rejuvenate our bodies, renew our minds, and quiet our fears & misgivings.
Furthermore, the Lord WANTS us to take time with Him. After all, doesn't His presence in our hearts & minds do nothing but GOOD for us anyway (if we let Him attend to us & give everything over to Him)? He created us to need Him & interact with Him not only on a daily basis, but on a every-second-of-every-day basis. He created us for His constant presence, so no wonder we fall apart & our lives become meaningless as soon as we venture away from Him!
I am, of course, not immune to this. But I believe it is a valuable lesson to learn & easier to combat Satan on this issue when we become aware of our potential weaknesses & his schemes.