Romans 5:3-5 “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
Isaiah 53:7 “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.”
The days, the weeks, and the months at Valley Forge tested the endurance of the American Continental Army. General Washington wrote the following about their conditions, their constitution, and their character:
“For without arrogance or the smallest deviation from truth it may be said, that no history now extant can furnish an instance of an army’s suffering such uncommon hardships as ours has done, and bearing them with the same patience and fortitude. To see men, without clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets to lay on, without shoes, by which their marches might be traced by blood from their feet, and almost as often without provisions as with them, marching through frost and snow, and at Christmas taking up their Winter Quarters within a day’s march of the enemy, without a house or hut to cover them till they could be built, and submitting to it without a murmur, is a mark of patience and obedience which in my opinion can scarce be paralleled.”
It is easy for us to consider the challenges of our day as unprecedented and unparalleled. It is easy to grow weary because we are overwhelmed by the burdens we carry. We easily forget that our predecessors faithfully carried burdens, and those burdens sometimes make ours look mild by comparison. Our Savior certainly did.
We are to be encouraged by the faithful fortitude of our forefathers. Their tribulations created patience, endurance, experience, and hope. We should harness their hope, and more importantly their source of hope, to help us through our times today.
PLEASE PRAY FOR PATIENCE AND FORTITUDE IN HANDLING OUR DAILY CHALLENGES. Our forefathers’ endurance could scarce be paralleled, but their source of hope is readily available for us today.
