For He Who Promised Is Faithful

   You have been promised a lot of things in your life and not all of them have panned out. We have all been let down by someone, something or some assurance. That is an element of the human condition. There are no guarantees in anything of human origin. With that dim conclusion, let me offer you some heavenly hope.

The church in Thessalonica had been in despair. They were uncertain as to the coming of the Christ. They had received a false letter, “to the effect that the day of the Lord has come” (2 Thess. 2:2).  In the first letter, Paul mentions “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He continues with this, “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass” (1 Thess. 5:23, 24).

The church there had also endured distress in the absence of Paul. “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews” (1 Thess. 2:14). Paul reminds them of the affliction from evil men in the second letter by saying, “But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one” (2 Thess. 3:3).

The writer of the book of Hebrews understood the delusion that the recipients of the letter were under. He wrote them to encourage them not to go back. The message throughout the book is hold fast, hold fast, hold fast (Heb. 3:6, 14; 4:14)! Don’t let go of what God has prepared for you and what so many have longed to see! The eternal plan for the salvation of mankind was something that prophets and angels longed to know (1 Pet. 1:10-12). These things we can read about and live every day. It is so common to us that we would let it slip from our fingers without a thought of its value. As the readers of the Hebrew letter were about to do the same, God yells through the penman of the letter, “Don’t let go! The I Am is faithful.” “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Heb. 10:23).

In your despair, God is faithful. In your distress, God is faithful. In your delusion, God is faithful. Look at your life and examine these things, and you will know it to be so. The Creator of the world has promised and is faithful. Men will disappoint, but God will never let you down. For this reason David writes, “When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me? (Psa. 56:3-4).    ~Josh Blackmer