Endure at All Cost

I love a radical prodigal story. There is something about the “once was lost, but now am found” narrative that rushes me to a teary moment of praise every single time. As believers, we should rejoice over the salvation of a soul—it is the heartbeat of Heaven.

But what happens the day after the prodigal comes home?

“Then he said to the crowd, ‘If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.'” — Luke 9:23-24 NLT

Have we stopped to consider why so many are deconstructing or falling away from their faith? We are good at telling new believers that, like Christ, we will suffer—but we haven’t become great at equipping them with how to endure.

There is a massive difference between being “talked at” about what Christ has done and being encouraged, equipped, and prayed for to actually experience who He is.

I know the church has become afraid of that word: experience. We’ve seen “lukewarm” environments abuse the language, making services more about fleeting feelings than eternal Truth. But the desire to experience His love is pure; in fact, it is the ultimate desire of the human heart. We must be careful with our words when exhorting those who are struggling. Let us contend for our sisters and brothers in the “in-between” by quoting the Psalms that beg for the experience of His keeping.

I heard Megan Ashley once say: “Our evangelism needs discipleship.” That hit me. If we are quoting Jesus’ words in Luke to new believers—telling them they must take up a cross—we, as leaders, must be vulnerably confessing the difficulty of that endurance. We often skip the second half of the Great Commission:

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” — Matthew 28:19-20 NLT

The command is to teach them to obey. We are called to teach them to love God with all their heart and their neighbors as themselves (Matthew 22:37-39). Many walk away from the faith because they haven’t learned to love others well—often because they don’t love themselves and are drowning in shame. And most tragically, they forget the primary pursuit. We try to follow the commands without knowing the heart of the Commander. We try to carry the cross without staying connected to the One who carried it first. In that lack, loving God becomes a task we fail at rather than the foundation we stand on. We lose the reality of Jesus and the life-altering truth that He is always with us.

This isn’t theory for me; it’s my history.

Experience taught me what a textbook couldn’t: endurance is quiet work. Recently, between the grief of losing my grandfather, the sting of a breakup, and the trauma of a physical attack by a stranger, my body finally gave out. A month-long cold took my physical voice, but the ministry exhaustion had already taken my spiritual one. I was a leader who could no longer speak, forced to sit at the Mercy Seat and simply be kept. I was leading a Bible study for single women, contending for their breakthrough, while I felt like I was breaking myself.

I had to endure. I had to let brave, faithful, strong women in Christ carry me and remind me of His Word when the grief made me question the very Healer I believed in. This was me—a leader, someone discipled for years, someone with God’s mercy dripping off her life—and it was still messy.

Praise God for my community. That year made me even more eager to pass that strength on to you. Enduring is hard. James one tells us that we must leave space for endurance to do its complete work in us so that we may become mature, complete, and lacking nothing.

This blog category, Scripture & Seat, exists because we are all here at the Mercy Seat together—begging Him to reveal His character and love to us through the Word. Every month, we will take a closer look at the biblical practices that equip us to endure. We will be discipled together by the Spirit’s writing.

Do not turn away. Do not quit the battle. If you are specifically dealing with heartbreak, confusion, or questions that you want us to seek the Lord on together, please reach out via the [Contact Page]. Let’s pray and seek His guidance here.

Homework Reading:  James 1:1-8

Reflect: What is one area where you are currently “brooding over the past” instead of enduring in the present?