FAITH THAT HOLDS FAST (2)

“Therefore do not cast away your CONFIDENCE, which has GREAT REWARD” – Hebrews 10:35

Great Reward awaits the FAITH that HOLDS FAST to God’s Word: “Therefore do not cast away your CONFIDENCE, which has GREAT REWARD. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the PROMISE” (Heb.10: 35-36). The New Living Translation says, “So do not throw away this CONFIDENT TRUST in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you” (Heb.10:35). Ephesians 3:12 defines the A-B-C of Faith: “In whom we have BOLDNESS and ACCESS with CONFIDENCE through faith in Him”. Faith provides Access into Grace. Faith takes fast, bold hold of the Word. And, faith fights and forges into the Future with Confidence!

It's really easy to mistakenly throw something valuable away. A man, after eating at a restaurant, accidentally threw away his phone with the waste wrappers, into the trash! As gross as looking through the trash was, he eventually retrieved the phone after digging a few layers deep in the trash. In our walk with God, we must be careful not to throw away our trust in God. It can be easy when we face life’s challenges, to want to question God. Trust in God comes and grows by reminding ourselves daily of how good and faithful He is. Regardless of how hopeless things might seem right now, God cannot leave or forsake His own! Despite all challenges, we must never lose Hope and Trust in God! He’ll never let us down!

Faith that holds fast relies and trusts entirely on God’s Word, and refuses to doubt or be cast away: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and he shall direct your paths” (Pro.3:5-6). It needs no other evidence outside of God’s Word. The centurion took Jesus at His Word, confident only in the Word and its authority (Mt.8: 5-10). The Word – not circumstances or sense knowledge – is final authority: “…blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (Jh.20: 24-29).

Victorious Faith holds fast to the answer and not the problem: “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us HOLD FAST our confession” (Heb.4:14); “Let us HOLD FAST the confession of our faith without wavering; (for he who promised is faithful”) (Heb.10:23). A confession of doubt will make the Word ineffective. It was written about Abraham: “And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise” (Heb.6:15). Faith plus Patience delivers the promise. The trying of our faith puts the force of patience to work (Jam.1:1-8). Patience means: being constant, consistent, never changing regardless of circumstances.

Beloved in Christ, it sounds paradoxical that it’s “after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings” (v.32). Meanwhile, some people seem to simply glide through life. They seem to never suffer. They always look happy, as if they have no problems in the world. But you may be asking: “What’s wrong with me? Why have I had to endure one trial after another since I gave my all to Jesus? When I was cold and lukewarm in faith, everything seemed okay. I didn’t know such challenges existed until I got serious with God.” It appears that after you opened your life to Jesus and were flooded with His light, then great fights of afflictions began! The Truth is: Satan attacks believers according to the measure of light we receive and walk in. Those who walk in a little ray of light are no threat to the devil’s kingdom.

Satan aims his “great struggle with sufferings” at those who love the light with their whole heart; those who embrace all that Christ has for them and have no part in darkness. Their faith has laid fast hold of the Word that makes them patient “Endurers” (v.35-36a). Such triumphant soldiers never draw back but march forward in full assurance of faith: “But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul” (v.39).