Spiritual Tenacity: Hope, Faith, and Patience
13For when
God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he
swore by himself, 14saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply
you.” 15And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the
promise. 16For people swear by something greater than themselves,
and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17So
when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the
unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18so
that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we
who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the
hope set before us. 19We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of
the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20where
Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Many years ago, I read a comment by Billy Graham that I
found a little shocking and disappointing. He always surrounded himself with an
accountability group; five guys who held his feet to the fire regarding his spiritual
life. He believed when he was younger that this group would become less and less
necessary as he aged, as he hoped it became easier to resist temptation in old
age. He commented that he was bitterly disappointed to learn that this was not
the case. If anything, he needed that accountability even more in his later
years than he did as young man. As we go through this life, attached to the
Lord Jesus Christ, we simply must learn how to tenaciously hang on to the
faith despite what the world, the devil, and our own flesh throw at us. We must hold fast.
The writer of Hebrews uses the faith life of Abraham and the
faithfulness of Jesus to press upon the readers/listeners the importance of
holding fast to the faith we have been given. It’s not always easy as the vagaries
of life press in and try to steal what is ours. But, to use the illustration
from this passage, we must remain anchored in the harbor, ready to move onto
the shore when the Lord says “go”.
I believe we face many enemies in this effort to hold fast;
busyness, distraction, and weariness. Along with those enemies are the assaults
of Satan and our own flesh that offer up apathy, complacency, and unbelief. So
the process is indeed challenging. But we are not without hope!
As we struggle with our internal enemies we are also in
possession of the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. He was sent to each of
us in our baptism to build our faith, hope, and even our patience. We are
anchored to that which keeps us strong so that spiritual tenacity is most certainly
possible. We are not cast adrift to figure it out for ourselves, and for that
we are most grateful.
Comments
Post a Comment