GOD’S WORDS OF ESTABLISHMENT

“Comfort your hearts and ESTABLISH you in every good word and work” – 2 Thessalonians 2:17

Faith in Christ is rooted and grounded in GOD’S WORDS of ESTABLISHMENT: “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by Grace, comfort your hearts and ESTABLISH you in every good word and work” (2The.2:16-17). If there was ever a time for Believers to be grounded and established in the faith, that time is now!

Paul warned the Thessalonians: “not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of  sin is revealed, the son of perdition” (vv.2-3). Humanity is passing through perilous times and seasons of seduction, deception, and perversion.Strong winds of false doctrines are sweeping through the world. The writer of Hebrews therefore admonished: “Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be ESTABLISHED by GRACE, not with foods…” (Heb. 13:9a).

To be established means to be stabilized, founded and grounded; and to have a strong footing on which more formidable structures of life can be built. Rather than be shaken in mind or trouble, God wants to establish our hearts and lives in “every good word and work” (v.17b). That’s the divine design: for us to be established by grace, in the faith, and in every good word and work! It is not His Will that our lives be insecure, weak, shaky, unsteady or unstable. David testified: “He brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and ESTABLISHED MY STEPS” (Psa.40:2). Not only will God establish our steps, His hand shall be established with us, and His arm shall strengthen us (Psa.89:21).

Paul echoed God’s Heart when he reminded the Romans of his desire for them to be established: “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be ESTABLISHED” (Rom.1:11). Our Father-God wants us:

• To be “rooted and built up in Him and ESTABLISHED in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving” (Col.2:7).

• To “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1Cor.15:58).

There is an Anointing for Establishment that flows from God’s Words: “Now He who ESTABLISHES US with you in Christ and has anointed us is God” (2Cor.1:21). It is not sufficient to be anointed and not be established. Some people pursue the anointing for wrong ends; without a real desire for establishment in righteousness. They are like “wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest” (2Pet.2:17a). They roam around life with regrets and wander through the world’s wilderness like weary souls. Their lives are full of distractions and diversions. Lured by worldliness, seduced by strange fires, and deceived with diverse and strange doctrines, they forget that “it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace” (Heb.13:9).

Grace is the guarantee of Divine Establishment: “But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, ESTABLISH, strengthen, and settle you” (1Pet.5:10). By the Grace of God, we shall never shift from the hope of the Gospel, but shall “continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast” (Col.1:23a). We shall neither be misled by the error of the wicked, nor fall from steadfastness (2Pet.3:17). We shall be kept from falling, and be presented faultless before the presence of God’s Glory with exceeding joy (Jude 1:24).

“Now to Him who is able to ESTABLISH you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began…to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen” (Rom.16:25-27).