How Do We
Gain Grit?
By Mark Moore
At the head of them all is Jesus Christ.
It’s his sacrifice that elicits our own.
Our endurance flows from his example
and his presence with us.
other things, there is the daily pressure
on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
Aside from Jesus, there may be no
better example of suffering nobly than
the apostle Paul. He cataloged his
suffering in 2 Corinthians 11:24–28: Why was Paul able to endure so much?
Remember the two things that grow
grit: Paul looked around to others he
was responsible to and responsible for.
And he looked ahead at the reward he
would reap through perseverance.
Five times I received at the hands of
the Jews the forty lashes less one.
Three times I was beaten with rods.
Once I was stoned. Three times I was
shipwrecked; a night and a day I was
adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in
danger from rivers, danger from robbers,
danger from my own people, danger
from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger
in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger
from false brothers; in toil and hardship,
through many a sleepless night, in
hunger and thirst, often without food,
in cold and exposure. And, apart from He put it this way:
Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss
for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count
everything as loss because of the
surpassing worth of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have
suffered the loss of all things and
count them as rubbish, in order that I
may gain Christ and be found in him,
not having a righteousness of my own
that comes from the law, but that which
comes through faith in Christ, the
righteousness from God that depends
on faith—that I may know him and the
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