Endurance training

Let us not forget the goal. If we lose sight of our eternal destination, we may as well throw in the towel now and go home. As ambassadors of God, we are on a mission. As we encounter difficulties during our life, we can look at those adversities and become paralyzed by fear or we may allow our pride to puff itself up so that we try to deal with those situations our way, because we don’t deserve this, right? Has it ever occurred to you, that if God brings you to it, He will bring you through it? Yes, that’s a saying many of us have heard so many times that it may have lost its meaning. But think about it. IF we don’t learn a lesson and we take a test and fail, don’t we have to repeat our lesson to retake that same test at the end? And we only move on after successful completion, right? I ought to know, with my college experience ;-) So why should our spiritual life be any different? God wants to strengthen our faith. We can only become stronger, if we experience adversities. If life runs too smooth, we have no need to cling to God as our only hope. When you look at people you admire, they have likely faced tough odds and have persevered. Battle scars are the jewels we will compare one day at the edge of the crystal lake. Let us not become weary and spiritually lazy. We are being compared with runners by Paul (1 Cor. 9:24-27). So let us exercise our muscles and keep on keepin’ on. Let us think of the prize at the end of our race. We should want to win, not just skip along when we feel like it, and sit down when we just aren’t feelin’ it. God wants to take us to new heights and give us our own spiritual experiences that are only learned in the valley of hard knocks.

References:
http://www.onlinepredigt.de/viewtopic.php?t=927&highlight=

2 Peter 1:3-11
"3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters,[a] make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."