Sometimes our faith is stretched when things go wrong in our lives. Today’s word speaks to us in such circumstances. More than ever before, in times of struggle, it’s time for faith to endure. If anyone had a reason to give up on faith, it was Paul. But yet he wrote these words of wonderful encouragement to Timothy, and to us, from prison!
In this week’s reading from the Prophet Jeremiah is another faith challenging struggle. God’s people have been captured and taken as captives to Babylonia. Should they give up their hopes and dreams? Should they give up their faith?  What sort of things could go wrong in our lives that might cause us to question our faith? What might lower the resilience of your faith or mine? Failure?  Illness? Loss of a loved one? Something unfair happening?  What about affluence? Affluence can easily lead to indifference to the Lord’s work and presence in our lives. As a result our reliance on the Lord can be lowered and ultimately our endurance tested. It is so easy to fall into patterns where we rely more on ourselves than on the Lord. We shouldn’t be surprised at the lack of faith endurance around us in our affluent culture.

In the meantime there is this wonderful assurance for us, even when our faith is not so resilient:
                                                 If we are not faithful, he will still be faithful.  Christ cannot deny who he is.”