For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it? (Joel 2:11 ESV)
Endurance
Our windchill was negative 21 degrees.
Driving and RV through a Colorado pass one winter, I lost visibility for nearly 30 minutes.
DeAnne and I were both unemployed in the months leading up to our wedding.
While doing touristy things with a friend in Sydney, Australia, we ended up walking after dark through a druggie-occupied, high-murder spot.
I survived them all.
Statistically, these were dangerous situations. But I am Christ’s adopted sibling.
There is no guarantee that I wouldn’t have had tragic harmful results in those situations. BUT there is a guarantee that Jesus (as well as the other persons of the Trinity) is it work in my life and the world in the exact way that I needed.
The prophet Joel describes a horrific invasion aimed at God’s people in his day. When he asks, “who can endure it?” he knows the answer.
God’s people can endure. And God’s people will endure.
And that endurance is what Jesus guarantees us. That endurance is what Jesus alone guarantees. That endurance is what Jesus alone guarantees because only He is powerful enough, loving enough, knows enough, and is present enough to enable us to endure.
We do not endure through our knowledge, skill, or devotion. It is all Him. If the verb tense would let us, we could say, in fact, that Jesus endures us.