"And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." Hebrews 6:11-12
There comes a point in the Christian life where faith settles into a routine. You know the truths, you keep the rhythms, but the fire you once felt has waned. You can settle there for a long time without ever noticing you've stopped moving forward. Then one day you look up and realize you've drifted far from where you began.
Hebrews will not let that pass as harmless, and it makes the point to people you would not expect to need it. These were believers who had already suffered for their faith, who had held their ground when following Christ cost them dearly. Yet the author still has to tell them they have grown dull. By now, they should have been teachers, but instead they need someone to teach them the basics again. If spiritual dullness could creep up on a church that had been through fire, none of us are safe from it. And growing dull is not standing still. It is a slow drift backward, back toward milk, back toward infancy, back away from the God you were made to know more deeply.
But the call to grow is not a call to grip harder and manufacture your own progress. Look at how Hebrews grounds it. It points to Jesus, who did not coast either. In the days of His flesh He offered up prayers with loud cries and tears, and though He was the Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. He walked the long, costly road of obedience ahead of us, all the way to its end, and now He lives to carry us along it.
And here is what makes pressing forward possible. God has not left your growth to rest on your own ability. He made a promise, and then He swore an oath to guarantee it. Two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie. Your hope is fastened to that oath like an anchor, sure and steadfast. God swore that oath to give you strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before you and never let go. His promise is the ground you stand on, unshakable and certain. He has pledged Himself to you, and He calls you to hold fast to Him all the way to the end.
So do not mistake the comfortable place for a safe one. Take hold of the hope God has set before you, and refuse to let go. There is more of Him to know than you have yet known, and He supplies the strength to reach for it. Christ has gone ahead and opened the way. Hold fast to Him, and press on to the end.
Reflection Question
Is there any area of your faith where you sense you've grown idle? What might it look like to press deeper into God there?
Father, thank You that You did not leave my growth to my own strength. You made a promise and secured it with an oath, and Your word cannot fail. Thank You that Jesus learned obedience through what He suffered and walked the road ahead of me. Forgive me for the times I have mistaken a comfortable faith for a safe one, and for treating Your promises as permission to coast. Do not let me drift. Stir up the fire that has cooled, and by Your grace help me take hold of the hope You have set before me, holding it fast to the end. Keep me pressing deeper into You, and let me not stop short of all You have for me. In Jesus' name, amen.
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4 comments
Thank you for this.
Glory to God, loveee thiss
Thank you for this Word. You were a blessing to me this morning.
Thanks for the devotional. I enjoyed it, and will apply it.