Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.
– Revelation 13:10
What a simple verse. What a simple word from God in this chapter in Revelation for you and me today, here is a call.
Revelation 13:10 is a call to endurance and faith.
Here is God calling you and me today to endure and to hold fast to faith in him. Here’s a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. That word means the holy ones, the ones set apart by God for himself as his people. If you are a child of God, if you have put your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins as the savior and Lord of your life, you’re a saint. Obviously. It doesn’t mean you are perfect. It’s oftentimes what we think of when we think of that word. But it does mean you have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus.
This is who you are. You’re a holy one. You’re one set apart for God. So here is a call from God for your endurance and faith today. I just want you to think about the temptations in your life right now, to not endure, to turn away from faith in God. And this could look so many different ways in our lives. You think about even just any and every temptation for any one of us to sin today, it’s a temptation to lose faith, to trust in our ways more than God’s ways, to trust in our wisdom more than God’s wisdom, to trust that we know better than God what is best for our lives.
So here is a call from God for endurance in faith today. All day long, trust in God, in his ways more than your ways. Or you think about temptations amidst suffering to wonder where God is. Or why God is doing this and how God can be good and this or that happen.
Revelation 13:10 is a call to trust God.
And here is a call from God. God’s saying to you right now through his Word in Revelation 13:10, trust in me. You can trust in me. Don’t lose trust in me. And in a world of sin and suffering and sorrow and death, faith is a matter of endurance. In many ways, we find ourselves just enduring. But no, Revelation 13 is making clear that your endurance in faith will be worth it. Endurance in faith will be rewarded. Don’t lose faith.
Oh God, I just pray this specifically over every faith struggle represented in our lives right now. Faith struggles when it comes to temptation to sin today. God, we pray that you’d help us to hold fast to faith and to follow your ways and not our own ways, to trust your wisdom more than our wisdom. To believe that you know better than we do what is best for our lives and to act, to live accordingly.
And God, I pray for those who are walking through hard days, through suffering, through struggles in so many different ways in their lives, families, work, church, whatever it might be. Oh God, I pray for their endurance through it all. God, we pray that you would keep us from turning from you in the middle of hard days in this world. Lord, we pray for endurance and faith as saints, as your people, as your holy ones. God, help us to see ourselves as you see us today, as set apart for you, is loved by you with all your promises to us that enable us to endure, that you will not fail us when we endure in faith.
Prayer fro the Yintale Karen People
And oh God, we pray for people who don’t know those promises and don’t have faith in Jesus right now.
God, for the Yintale Karen people of Myanmar who’ve never heard the good news about Jesus, who’ve never heard the promises of eternal life in Jesus. God, we pray for the spread of the gospel today to the Yintale Karen people of Myanmar and to other people, groups like them in Myanmar who’ve not been reached with the gospel. They’re not saints because they’ve not experienced your grace in Jesus. God, change that. Draw them in as saints. We pray for saints among the Yintale Karen people of Myanmar, and we pray for endurance and faith in all those who are spreading the gospel in Myanmar. I pray all of this according to your Word, to us in Revelation 13:10, according to your call to us for endurance and faith today. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
