KEEPING THE FAITH

The Lord desires a people who will keep faith even if they suffer the loss of all things.

“But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions . . . and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance” (Hebrews 10:32, 34).

This is speaking of God’s people who had been greatly afflicted “after they were illuminated.” They had seen the light! Their goods were lost, but faith made them joyful because their eyes were on a more “enduring substance.”

If you lost all your earthly possessions, would you cast away your confidence?

Paul kept the faith in good times and bad times. In his final days he could boast, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). He could say, “Satan sent messengers to fight me in Jerusalem, Damascus, Asia, Ephesus, Antioch, and Corinth. But I kept the faith! Five times the Jews beat me with thirty-nine stripes. I’ve been cast into prison so many times, beaten with rods three times, stoned, robbed, even by my own countrymen—but I kept the faith!

“I’ve been so weary at times, full of pain, hungry, thirsty, cold and naked, loaded down with cares of all kinds, yet I kept the faith. I’ve been troubled, perplexed, distressed, persecuted, but never cast down, never destroyed, never shaken in my faith.”

These words will sustain us in the days ahead: “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord” (Psalm 112:7).

“The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore” (Psalm 121:7-8).

“For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock” (Psalm 27:5).

“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me” (Psalm 50:15).