Hebrews 10:32-39 (NIV) 32But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings,33partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. 34For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. 35Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. 37FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY.,38BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM. 39But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
If our faith in God remains only an inner confidence, it is as if the gift is still wrapped, important perhaps, valuable like a treasure under glass, but not of much real use to us. When we unwrap the gift and put it to work for us, that faith is called faithfulness. Faithfulness is confidence in action. Faithfulness means that our confidence in God is directing what we think, and feel, and do.
For the faithful person, the big question in life is not “am I succeeding, or failing?” but “am I being faithful, am I fulfilling God’s will or going against it?” Faithful people have enough confidence in God to persevere in seeking and doing God’s will even when everything in them and around them says to quit, give up, and give in … everything except for the still, small voice of God.
Faithful people keep their commitments to God because they have discovered that God keeps His commitments to them. If love is the cardinal virtue of the Christian faith, faithfulness is the most basic, giving love its enduring quality.
Do not throw away your confidence, specifically, do not throw it away to the power of sin within which draws us from God by making the blessings of following sinful desires seem large, wonderful, and very attractive, and by making the blessings of God seem to be small, unimportant, and not worth the effort.
How many of us have experienced the power of sin trying to rob us of our confidence in God? We are not those who lose confidence when circumstances seem overwhelming. Overwhelming circumstances can be stress, pressure, sickness, loss, family problems, financial difficulties.
Remain faithful, Hebrews encourages, being faithful to God’s will, to God’s promises, and perhaps most importantly to God’s Son, Jesus the Christ who lives in those living by being faithful. The words simply prove to be true again and again that by our endurance we will gain our life.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope November 17, 1991
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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