Patient Endurance
It’s really rather odd. When we suffer, we can become angry with God, as if He has promised that we would avoid it. But He has never promised us a trouble free life - on the contrary, He makes it absolutely clear that life involves suffering, and Christians won’t avoid it.
A close look at the apostle John’s words in Revelation shows that even he was surprised at the terrible suffering he ensured on Patmos. In his excellent book of Revelation, Rick Renner writes, ‘When (John) wrote about his experience on that island, he communicated the sense of surprise he felt when the events were taking place…John wrote that he ‘was in the isle that is called Patmos’.1. The word ‘was’ comes from the Greek word ginomai, which converts a sense of shock and surprise, something that happens unexpectedly or something that catches one off guard. John used the Greek word ginomai in this case to describe to his readers, how he felt when all of these events were unfolding in his life…. because John could never have predicted the events that brought him to the island of Patmos, he used this word ginomai, to convey the idea, ‘in a way I could never have expected, predicted or anticipated, I came to find myself on the island of Patmos’.
Jesus made it clear: “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.” (Matthew 24:9)
Paul affirmed that truth, both in his own experience and in his teaching. ‘Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22)
Ajith Fernando comments on Acts 14:22, ‘Paul warned them about approaching hardship in a statement that implies that hardship is a necessary requirement along the path to the kingdom. It literally reads, “Through many tribulations it is necessary (dei) for us to enter the kingdom of God” (v. 22c). The word “many” (pollon) expresses not mere quantity or number but variety. This idea of variety in suffering is more clearly expressed in James 1:2, which uses the word poikilois (“various kinds of”) with trials. The word for “trials” (thlipsis) means “trouble involving direct suffering.” Paul implies that Christians will not sail through trouble with consummate ease. Rather, they will struggle with difficult hardships of various kinds (Fernando, A. (1998). Acts (p. 400). Zondervan Publishing House)
Paul calls us all to ‘Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer’ (Romans 12:12), and then, in writing to the Thessalonians , he said, ‘“We sent Timothy … to establish and exhort you in your faith, that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.” (1 Thessalonians 3:2,3)
1. Rick Renner Seven Churches of Revelation, Harrison House