Today we continue our new series entitled, “Press through it! Let’s look at something the writer of Hebrews said.
(Hebrews 10:23 New Living Translation)
Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.
God does all He does for us by grace. Grace is unearned, unmerited and mostly undeserved. God is a good God and He blesses us because of His goodness and not our performance. However, while God’s part is grace, our part is faith. The Bible calls and commands us to walk and live by faith. Everything we do towards God, we must do in faith.
If we are going to receive God’s best, our faith must be resilient. What I mean by this is that there are basically two components to our faith: believing and maintaining. When you first receive a promise from God, most of the time, it is going to be so big that your mind and your heart may struggle to initially believe it. If you never believe it, you will never receive it. But let’s say you get past the believing stage. Once you believe the promise in your heart, you then have to hold on long enough to see it come to pass, and you must do whatever is required of you, in faith, along the away. This is where most people give up. They believe initially, but they do not believe long enough to see the promise manifested. Along the way they convince themselves (or they allow satan to convince them) that since it has taken so long, maybe it was not God’s will, and they let go of the issue altogether in their hearts. If you do this, you will not receive from God. You must trust that God is going to do what He said He would do, and you must keep believing no matter how long it takes.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things:
1. God requires faith of you. The Bible teaches us to walk by faith (2 Cor 5:7), live by faith (Rom 1:17), fight by faith (1 Tim 6:12), pray by faith (Jas 5:15), and overcome the world by faith (1 Jn 5:4). We are to do all that we do by faith, in faith, and through faith! God’s part is clearly done by grace. Our part must be done by faith. Our faith accesses God’s grace.
2. The challenge comes in the fact that our faith does not normally produce results overnight. We believe God, we stand on His Word, we sow seed, we pray and we fully expect a harvest. However, we all know that in most cases the harvest does not come immediately. This is where this series comes in. We must maintain our hope, our desire, and our expectation while we are waiting. Make no mistake, how you wait can impact how long you wait. And if you give up before your harvest season comes due, you may miss out on your harvest altogether.
3. The writer of Hebrews tells us to hold tightly to the hope we have and to do so without wavering. Not only should we refuse to quit, but the Bible tells us not to even waver. In James’ letter, when teaching about asking God for things in prayer, he taught that we must ask in faith, without wavering. James said the following when referring to a person who wavers when they are believing God for something: “Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord” (see James 1:5-8).
4. Hebrews 10:23 teaches us not to waver and that we must hold on to our hope. That’s good, but it keeps going. The latter portion of the text says, “For God can be trusted to keep his promise.” So why should we hold on and not waver? Why is it that we should keep our hopes up? Why should we keep our faith switch in the “ON” position? Because we serve a God who CAN be trust to keep His promise.
5. Meditate on what the writer of Hebrews is teaching you in 10:23. He gives you three nuggets to hold onto as you enter this day:
a) Do not allow your faith to waver. Wavering is the precursor to quitting. So resist wavering at all costs.
b) Hold onto your hope. In the world they tell you not to get your hopes up, so you won’t be disappointed. But we have a hope that does not disappoint (Romans 5:5). The Father wants you to get your hopes up, and to keep them up, no matter how long it takes!
c) Our God can be trusted. We serve a God who can be trusted to say what He means and to mean what He says. If He said it, He will do it. If He spoke it, He will bring it to pass (Num 23:19).
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I hold on to my faith and I do so without wavering. I refuse to waver and I refuse to quit. My faith switch is in the “ON“ position and my hope is set to HIGH. You have given me a hope that does not disappoint. You have never disappointed me and You never will. I get my expectations up and I keep them up by faith. Every time the pressure is on me to give up, cave in or quit, I remind myself that I serve a God who can be trusted. You will always do what You said You would do. I stand on Your Word, I believe Your promises, I put You in remembrance of them, and I hold on no matter how long it takes. Every Word You have spoken over me shall come to pass before I die. I enter this day knowing that You are watching over Your Word to perform it in my life! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
