NOT Shrinking; NOT Quitting, BUT Living Well in the Wait
In the world, there are many opportunities to notice how there seems to be a several opposites. In English literature, counting and subtracting, multiplying and dividing adds up, subtracts from, sums up and reduces down to different answers than to the world of mathematicians. As an instructor of English, these opposites bring a positivity to our world. Truthfully, everything inside this earthly world does not always equate with truth. Instructors of math see absolutes as the bottom line, where the answer is ALWAYS the answer, but to the instructors of language and English and literature, the answers are more abstract.
For example—In literature, 2 + 2 = 5, BUT in mathematics, 2 + 2 ALWAYS = 4 & in the world of literature, “misfits” are ALWAYS referring to someone who just does not fit into this world. If you are skeptical, read George Orwell’s 1984 and Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”
Within the truth of God’s Word, we read how the disciples of Christ were those who were outnumbered & who just seemed to be a bit of “misfits” in their world. To the nonbelievers living in that day, the Christ-followers were just peculiar, odd, and a bit abnormal. Nevertheless, is that NOT as the Word of God explains it to be. Does NOT God’s Word tell believers to desire NOT what’s here, what’s seen, but what is there in heaven, the unseen, straining NOT for where they are now living but desiring for the place where believers will go when life here on earth is complete?
YES, THE BIBLE DOES SAY THAT!
“Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
(The Letter to the Hebrews 10: 35-39 NASB)
For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God,
you may receive what was promised.
FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY.
BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH;
AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM.
But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction,
but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.”
In this world, we are encouraged to go after, to reach for, to consume ALL that a person can gain, but in the Holy Scripture, the opposite is that a person must seek. In the Bible, we read how a follower of JESUS is to SEEK HIM with ALL of his heart, soul, mind, and strength. For sure, on earth, there are opportunities to seek all this world has to offer, going forward with as much “gusto” as one can muster, living well while here on earth, for one day, death will come. However, for those who have believed and who have placed their HOPE in JESUS, they see the opposite, for they do not live for what’s here BUT for what’s there, in heaven, with JESUS. Christians are NOT to be ashamed of their faith here BUT are to vocalize, to live out, to suffer for, and to proclaim their faith, for ALL the world to see. In doing so, the LORD will not be ashamed to be called their God.
YES, THE BIBLE DOES SAY THAT BELIEVERS IN JESUS CHRIST ARE TO LIVE LIKE THAT!
“And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out,
(The Letter to the Hebrews 11: 15-16 NASB)
they would have had opportunity to return.
But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.
Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God;
for He has prepared a city for them.”
Jesus is Coming!
Continually we hear this statement made, BUT do we live as we believe it’s the truth?
- May we NOT Shrink Back; May we NOT Quit, BUT May we Live Well in the Wait.
- May we FOLLOW HIM for ONLY HIM, seeking HIM just because it is HIM we desire MOST of ALL.
- May we not pick up our wants and wishes, straining for the things we can see with our physical eyes.
BUT, may we do quite the opposite.
- May we turn daily from our sin and our self-focus. &
- May we pick up our cross, as we FOLLOW HIM!