I have had the privilege of hearing Trillia Newbell speak before at ERLC events and have read several of her articles. I’ve always come away from hearing her speak or reading her work with a lot to think about. Trillia is a sharp lady with a heart of compassion that drives her ministry of investing in others. It’s very clear that she sees her first ministry at home in serving her family. Her book Sacred Endurance is a great resource for keeping your eyes focused on an eternal perspective.
I highlighted several things while reading and have posted those notes below…
- God will keep us to the end, and the warnings and admonitions in the Scriptures help guide us toward that end. God’s strength and his enduring faithfulness will enable us to get there. He has given us his Word as a means of grace and instruction. And he has given us his Spirit to help and equip. Location: 200
- This is our sacred endurance: running the race of the Christian life set before us by the grace of God, through the strength of God, until the day we face our God. Location: 203
- The word translated as race in Hebrews 12:1 is agōna, which is an agonizing struggle or contest. Location: 256
- If something encumbers our walk, we need to figure out a way to adjust it or to lay it aside. Location: 273
- Grace keeps us from holding unhealthy standards for ourselves and for others. It frees us from guilt, judgment, oppression, and the relentless daily grind of trying to fix ourselves. Endurance that lasts can come only out of motivation marked by grace, faith, love, and God’s glory. Accompanied by the right motivations, living by grace sounds a lot like freedom, doesn’t it? Location: 491
- For true believers, our citizenship is in heaven (Phil 3:20). To set our minds on anything else will lead to despair and discouragement—and away from our Savior. Where we set our minds matters. Think on the things above. Think of what you’ll be there. It isn’t selfish to look forward to the day we’ll no longer have these lowly, broken bodies. We will have glorious bodies and glorious minds, no longer divided and torn. Our minds will be clear, with no more fog and confusion. Can you imagine what it will be like to have complete clarity? To no longer despair? To never be disappointed or to disappoint others? Despondency—gone. Discouragement—gone. Cynicism and complacency—forever gone. This is what we have to look forward to. But we don’t have to wait until that day to meditate on our reality. We can think about it now. I long to have mature thinking, which means a mind set on the things above. Setting our minds on Jesus and the prize that we’re running toward allows for greater endurance in this race. Location: 925
- R. C. Sproul commented on this, saying, “We see that Christianity is a faith of both mind and heart. God does not call us to surrender our rational faculties when we trust in His Son; rather, it is only in serving Him that we use our minds as He created them to be used.”7 Location: 936
- We can have hope because we know the end of the story. We know that one day all our pain and suffering will be wiped away. Our faith is in Jesus and his finished work. Location: 988
- So we rejoice because we trust that what God says in his Word is true. We rejoice because we know that suffering produces character, and in our hope, he will not put us to shame. We rejoice because we know that rejoicing isn’t about our feelings or our abilities to perform. Instead it’s about resting in Jesus and remembering the joy that awaits us. We fix our eyes on Jesus because he suffered on our behalf, and as our perfect model, he too was looking toward the joy set before him (Heb 12:2). Our joy may not come in the morning. It may take years before we’re able to rejoice in our suffering. God is patient. And it’s our aim to rejoice, though it may be a painful hallelujah over the course of many pleas for help. Location: 989
- Taking captive our thoughts is a means of caring for our souls. Location: 1,101
- I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD! (Ps 27:13-14) Location: 1,136
- Ultimately we need to trust God for our future. The future doesn’t look bright in an anxious world. When we look out at the landscape of our culture, it looks dim. But we who know the Lord look out with different eyes—with hope-filled eyes. Location: 1,142
- We read in the psalms that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Ps 46:1). Some translations say God is an “ever-present help.” This means God isn’t sort-of present, halfway present, distracted, or distant. He is always present. God is with us in our lostness and trouble. Location: 1,215
- Athletes discipline themselves to compete at a high level and to win. Whatever their sport, it requires tenacity, perseverance, faithfulness, and intentionality. In a similar way, as we embark on the disciplines of the Christian life, we ought to consider if we’re running in a flippant or haphazard manner and how that’s affecting what we believe about God and our daily lives. But it’s hard to pursue what we don’t desire. Location: 1,282
- As the psalmist cried out, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps 73:26). Location: 1,289
- Your prayer time doesn’t have to be anything elaborate, but I’m praying that, for you and me, it will be consistent and honest—every day. As African pastor Conrad Mbewe wrote, “This relationship with God is too important not to take it seriously—you must come to God with honest lips (Psalm 145:18).”3 We don’t need fancy words; we need desperate hearts. Location: 1,581
- Each day and each hour brings a fight to remember our greatest love in the world. One way for us to fight our temptation to wander toward lesser things and not to run the race set before us is to remember the love and pursuit of God. The love and the pursuit of any human pales in comparison to the love and pursuit of God. Location: 2,333 (PRONE TO WANDER)
- When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? (Ps 8:3-4) Location: 2,352