IBS Application for Luke 21:19

“By your endurance you will gain your lives.”

In the midst of a prophecy of persecution, we have this assurance. Christ prophecies that one day, the world will be engulfed by wars, disasters, and that His church will be persecuted by all. He even admits that some of us will be killed by our faith. Yet despite this, He still tells us that “not a hair of your head will perish.”

I imagine that Jesus’ disciples were confused about what He was saying at this point in time. How could some be persecuted and killed, yet be given assurance that they won’t come to harm if they persevere and endure through the hardships. These two promises would have looked contrary to each other. But as we now know, and as they came to know, He wasn’t wrong.

Christ defeated death by coming back to life. He proved that it was possible, and extends the promise of resurrection to the Church. We have assurance through His death and resurrection that we too will not stay in the grave. There is a rather notable prophecy in the Old Testament in Ezekiel 37 that I look to for encouragement regarding the resurrection of the dead, when God tells Ezekiel to prophesy over a valley full of dry bones in order make them rise up and walk again. Each one has its body fully restored and they became a fully functioning army. Even though this prophecy had perhaps a more immediate promise of restoring the House of Israel to glory, it still stands as a promise of resurrection for us today.

But Christ states in our verse that it is by endurance that we will gain our lives. Endurance through the persecution and the hardships we’ll face as witnesses. We’re encouraged by the author of Hebrews in chapter 12 of that letter to run the race set before us with the same endurance that Christ had while He was here on earth, stating that because of His perseverance He now sits at the right hand of the throne of God.

Being called to witness for Christ, we ought to take up this promise of life in the face of death. Whom or what do we have to fear if death has no hold over us anymore? Why should we give up the fight when we have such a great assurance?

I’m not claiming that this fight isn’t going to be easy. Jesus wasn’t saying it would be easy when He gave us this promise, either. I understand that the fight is hard. But the assurance of life is and encouragement in the face of the difficulty. It’s a fight worth fighting.


I find that it’s hard for me to come up with something more practical for this IBS, but I do think that what can be learned from it can be applied to yesterday’s IBS. We’ve been asked to minister to the world as witnesses. In order to hopefully do my job better, I’ll pray each day that God would grant me the endurance and perseverance to keep up the fight of ministry in the way that I said I would yesterday despite whatever persecution I may face. I’ll also pray that the Spirit would turn the tides of the fights that occur in the spiritual war that’s also going on in each of our lives, so that we all may be able to keep up the fight in spite of the persecution that we face at the hands of the enemy that take place in our hearts and minds on a daily basis.

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