Hang in There!

by Rolaant L. McKenzie

"For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6 (NASB)

Have you sometimes been so discouraged in your walk with Jesus that you were tempted to throw in the towel and walk away? Have you felt so hopeless at times in your struggles with sinful tendencies and habits that you just wanted to give up? Well, I have.

The struggle with sin is an ongoing battle that continues until the day we die. Just when I think I have completely overcome a certain tendency or bad habit in my life and give in to the temptation to relax a bit in that area, the world, the flesh, and the devil come back with greater fury to fasten that habit back into my life. And to fall back into a habit thought to have been completely conquered is a very discouraging and devastating thing.

The thing to do is to hang in there. Don't give up. Proverbs 24:16 says, "a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again". Get back up, put the full armor of God back on (Ephesians 6:10-17), and persevere in the struggle, for the ultimate victory over sin will come.

Remember the promise of God: "He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6)

No matter what you or I struggle with in this life, or adverse circumstances we face, God will see us through them and make sure we make it home to heaven. Why such a confidence in God?

For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, "I WILL SURELY BLESS YOU AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU." And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 7:13-20)

God is faithful and cannot lie. He is absolutely reliable and will keep all the promises that He has made. Because of this we can have the absolute assurance that nothing we struggle with in this life will prevent God from keeping us on the path to heaven and getting us there. It is not our performance that determines His faithfulness, but His character.

So hang in there with your walk with the Lord Jesus. Don't give up. Be patient with God. He will keep you; He will help you; He will pick you up when you fall.

"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

Praise the Lord Jesus for His persevering love and the hope we have in Him!