Keep The Faith!

Hebrews 10:35-36 (NIV)

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.

Our Verse of the Day is a call to persevere in faith. Though we see a world in tribulation on many fronts, we know there a great victory ahead of us! The inspired writer of the Letter to the Hebrews provides an encouraging word for us, the remnant Church, to keep moving forward as the Day of the Lord approaches. The righteous shall live by faith, for the Lord does not take pleasure in those who draw back in fear or hold to their confidence and trust in Him. We are to forge ahead and to be steadfast in faith. For there is great reward for patient endurance – the promise of salvation and eternal life!

Hebrews 10:23-39 (NIV)

²³ Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, ²⁵ not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. ²⁶ If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, ²⁷ but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. ²⁸ Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ For we know Him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.” ³¹ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. ³² Remember those earlier days after you had received the light (of the Gospel), when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. ³³ Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. ³⁴ You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. ³⁵ So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. ³⁶ You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. ³⁷ For, “In just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay.” ³⁸ And, “But the righteous will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who draws back.” (Quoting from Habakkuk 2:3-4) ³⁹ But we do not belong to those who draw back to destruction, but to those who have faith and are saved.

Philippians 3:12-21 (NIV)

¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. ¹⁶ Only let us live up to what we have already attained. ¹⁷ Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. ¹⁸ For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. ²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.

Jude 1:3-6; 17-21 (NIV)

³ Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. ⁴ For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. ⁵ Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered His people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these He has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.

¹⁷ But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. ¹⁸ They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” ¹⁹ These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. ²⁰ But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ keep yourselves in God’s love as you persevere and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

It is my prayer that these scriptural views regarding perseverance of faith will resonate in our hearts. Spiritual warfare is being waged all around this world … across our nation … and within our own communities.  Through faith, we need to press forward and be engaged in the battle! As Paul affirmed: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Cf. Ephesians 6:12-13) And this is what the Lord says: “The Word of God (the sword of the Spirit) shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Cf. Joshua 1:8-9)

Indeed, both Moses, and later, Joshua had to confront the unbelief and unfaithfulness of the ancient Israelites along their journey with God. During the growing pains of the early Church in the First Century, the Apostles had to confront the onslaught of false teachers and prophets who twisted doctrine and denied the truths Jesus had implanted in His chosen disciples. These were the eyewitnesses of His life, death, and resurrection … and filled with the Holy Spirit who fell on the Day of Pentecost. So, it is imperative that we, in our generation, hold fast to the faith once for all entrusted to God’s holy people and not wander from it nor abandon it for a false Gospel.

So, I join with the Apostles and urge each of us to be diligent in these matters and to wholly devote ourselves to the building of our faith through the spiritual disciples we have been taught. We, too, need to persevere so that when we have done the will of God, we will receive what He has promised….

So Now You Know…

Have a Blessed Day!

Links to Bible Gateway for Additional Study on Keeping the Faith:

1 Timothy 4:1-15 (NIV)

1 Timothy 6:11-16 (NIV)

2 Timothy 1:6-13 (NIV)

2 Timothy 4:1-8 (NIV)