I hope your week is off to a good start. Yesterday we looked at five more perseverance points in Hebrews 13. We are to:
Keep on exercising faith (vs. 6-8). Our personal faith isn’t about how fast we make progress, but it is about accepting responsibility for our forward progress. Too many Christians think God’s responsibility towards us means that He is to make life easy. Not so. It is our faith that drives us when the road is uphill. We don’t quit, but we push on in faith because on the other side of the hill is the development of a spiritual understanding that will sustain us for the entire race and not just the hurdle we are trying to overcome this minute.
Keep on being grounded in the truth (vs. 9). “Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. If ever you needed to know what you believed it is now. There are some 4200 religions active in the world today. The potential to be led astray is huge.
In this race we are running, we must make a committed pursuit to know the Word of God for ourselves.
Keep on looking forward to Heaven (vs. 14). “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.” Have you ever considered how the Christian life offers you forward focus because you have something to look super forward to? That’s one of my favorite things about being a Christian. Heaven is a reality. I know that the best is yet to come!
Keep on praising God (vs 15). “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise–the fruit of lips that confess his name.” Your praise and worship life is one of the evidences of your faith. If you can keep praising God while you run this race, you are demonstrating He is still in control whether your life seems to be going downhill or uphill.
Psalm 149:5-6 “Let the saints rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds. “May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands.”
The continual praise of God is a double-edged sword in our hands that will go before us and cut away briers and thorns and tall trees standing in our way as we run. Like faith, praise will give us access to our future. Praise will keep us moving forward.
Keep on being equipped (vs. 20-21). “May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ. If you are equipped you will more likely serve, and if you are serving Christ it is far less likely that you will fall away from Him.
Brothers and Sisters, it’s not how fast we run, but how far we go in the end that matters. Persevere. Persevere. Keep on keeping on in these areas which will ensure our success.
Pastor Melissa
