2 Cor. 1:6-7 (p.1828), Matthew 10:21-23 (p.1530), Romans 2:7 (p.1778), Hebrews 12:1 (p.1922), Romans 5:1-5 (p.1782)

The long haul they call it. It means its going through battles, challenges, and problems of every sort over long stretches of time. The days, weeks, months, and years all seem to go on with the same issues without the hope of it ending.

In the New Testament the word “enduring” found in 2 Cor. 1 comes from a Greek word that loosely translated means “remain under” as in how long we can remain under water or an emotional turmoil. We, under the pressure of problems, become submerged in a sense. Compressed or squeezed from all sides. There is a pressure in being held down which makes it sometimes impossible to move forward or at least it is a drag on our energy to do so.

The Greek translates in Roman 2:7 endurance a bit differently. That meaning is “patient continuance.” We cannot win a race by only being patient. Sometimes we need to run fast, to give it all we have, and to go as long as we can while doing so. There are times to pace ourselves and times to go all out.

The last Greek translation about endurance is “hold up under.” Think of a roof. If it begins to droop or to fall into the building then it turns into a ruin filled with water and is soon destroyed.If we combine all the definitions in Greek on endurance we find that Paul wanted us to know that God keeps us “up”, running forward towards a goal, and stops us from not crumbling into ourselves. Amen!