Hold Firmly
Prayer: He came from His blest throne Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none
The longed-for Christ would know.
But, oh, my friend, my friend indeed,
Who at my need His life did spend!
But men made strange, and none
The longed-for Christ would know.
But, oh, my friend, my friend indeed,
Who at my need His life did spend!
Read: 1 Corinthians 15:1–8
Think about It: 1 Corinthians 15 is known as the “resurrection” chapter. In these words of Paul we learn that not only did Jesus Christ rise from the dead, but so will we. Because Christ conquered death we too will rise again to spend eternity in His presence. That means on Easter morning as we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord we remember that our resurrection is assured as well.
In verse 2, Paul says that we need to hold firmly to this truth: “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures . . .” (1 Corinthians 15:2-4) The faith pivots around this central belief and we hold on to it with both hands. In the parking lot, when walking with a preschooler, the primary goal is to hang onto their hand. It is for their safety and survival. They are prone to looking at shiny object on the pavement, chasing after butterflies, and heading in their own direction. They’re short and difficult for other drivers to see and so we protect them from themselves because parking lots are not safe for them to wander alone. We hold onto them firmly because they are important. They are precious. The same is true of this understanding of our faith. We hold onto it because it is precious and we intentionally keep this gift at the center of our thoughts.
The writer to the Hebrews puts it this way in chapter 2, verse 1. “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” Just like that preschooler may wander away in the parking lot, so we too can become distracted by a myriad of other things. The world, the devil and our own flesh seek daily to draw us away from the Lord and cause us to forget that our lives, our eternities, lie in hands of God. We are distracted by work, family situations (both negative and positive), money worries, health issues, and the busyness of everyday life. Staying focused on God and dwelling on His work of salvation in our lives can be challenging and easy to forget and we can be in danger.
The answer for this is to remember that while we walk through life, the Father holds our hand. We pray without ceasing; we read His Word and allow it to inform our character; we gather with other believers and allow ourselves to be accountable to the Body of Christ. Then the distractions of a shiny object or a butterfly won’t derail our faith or cause us to loose hold of the truth that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and we will be as well.
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