BUILDING FAITH

ENDURE

FOR THE LONG RUN

DANIEL RITCHIE

Endure: Building Faith for the Long Run

Copyright 2022 Daniel Ritchie

Kirkdale Press, an imprint of Lexham Press

1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225

LexhamPress.com

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Scripture quotations are from ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Print ISBN 9781683595410

Digital ISBN 9781683595427

Library of Congress Control Number 2021941979

Lexham Editorial: Allisyn Ma, Abigail Stocker, Kelsey Matthews

Cover Design: Joshua Hunt, Brittany Schrock

TEAGUE AND ELLIOTT—

HE IS WITH YOU ALWAYS.

NEVER STOP CHASING HIM.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1

WHY IT’S HARD TO ENDURE

Chapter 2

HOW TO RUN WITHOUT RELENTING

Case Study: PAUL

THE GRACE TO ENDURE

Chapter 3

READ THE WORD

Chapter 4

HONORING GOD IN EVERY STEP

Chapter 5

PRAYER

Case Study: ABRAHAM

FAITH WHEN YOU CAN’T SEE

Chapter 6

MADE FOR COMMUNITY

Chapter 7

MADE FOR KINSHIP

Chapter 8

MADE TO WITNESS

Chapter 9

MADE TO BUILD BRICK BY BRICK

Case Study: JOSEPH

WADING THROUGH SUFFERING

Chapter 10

WAITING WELL

CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION

There are two things in life you never pray for: brokenness and patience.

Obviously that’s a joke. It’s a joke you will hear pastors offer up in light of the weight that both prayers carry when it comes to living them out. A prayer for brokenness is a call for loss and affliction. Being broken tears away any sort of veneer of self-sufficiency by having to walk through hurt and darkness.

A prayer for patience functions much in the same way as a prayer for brokenness. The answered prayer for patience does not come with an immediate snap of the fingers. The prayer for patience is answered in the opportunities to be patient. If patience were a muscle, these opportunities give the muscle a workout—and, as we see with physical fitness, patience isn’t built in a day. Time is a necessary part of our growth as both a person and as a child of God.

Yet the wait is the worst part of one’s growth in patience. The wait is filled with questions and doubts that haunt our waking hours. Especially when the wait is partnered with pain, our questions loom large. Our prayers sound a lot like, “God, what are you doing?” or even, “God, why me? Why aren’t you getting me out of this painful wait?”

The problem with patience is that the most human reaction we have is to look for an immediate remedy to our problems or for the endgame of our growth. We want answers right now and on our terms, which is not the typical way God works. He works in the lives of His children over the long run, not just in the immediate circumstances.

Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus but was quickly met with doubters and detractors, which pushed him ...