Hebrews 10:35-36 "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. (36) For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise."
Have you ever ordered one of those little handy dandy gadgets that are
advertised on television? If so, were you ever disappointed with its
performance once you received it? They make everything look so good on
tv, but do not always follow through on performance. After a few
disappointments, you lose all confidence in their word to make life better for
you.
I've often heard people reply to the message of God's sovereign grace with
something like, "That's too good to be true. God sent His Son to die for
sinners? He did it freely? No cost to us? Everything has a catch, so
what's the catch to this free grace thing?" Well, the truth is this:
"It is good and it is true." Not only did God send His
Son to die for His people, Jesus did it. He accomplished redemption for
us by dying on the cross. His love and His life is freely given,
unconditionally. His love is absolute. In fact, we quote the words of the
Apostle Paul, "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
(Romans 5:8) Our sins have been remitted; that means, "Jesus paid it
all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as
snow." (Jesus Paid It All by Elvina Mabel Hall)
Another quotation of the Apostle Paul states, "Being confident of this
very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6) The question I ask this
morning is this: Are you confident in the work of the very Son of God? If
not, where have you placed your confidence? Are you confident that His
work is unconditionally given to you? If not, what condition do you feel you
have to meet in order to complete the "imperfect" work of the Lord
Jesus Christ? I use that word, imperfect, with tongue in cheek because
His work IS perfect and leaves nothing undone and no condition to meet in order
to activate His work. Are you confident in that truth? If so, don't
cast it away. Don't throw it away when Satan comes to you trying to tell you
there has to be a hidden catch to that which Jesus did.
But, you might say, I have prayed about something and I prayed in the name of
Jesus for this to take place. It hasn't occurred yet. I've prayed over and over
again. It seems fruitless and futile for me to place confidence when I
don't get answers. I'm not the authority on patience, but we are told to be
patient when we approach the throne of grace. We need patience because
when we call unto Him about a situation, we must understand that He has
something we do not possess: Jesus knows the end from the beginning.
Sometimes we ask for the wrong thing. He knows what is best for us and we
don't. But even in that, "Cast not away therefore your
confidence." For you see, Jesus knows what is absolutely best. We
don't. We often want what we want without thinking how it will affect in days
to come. God looks at the overall picture. Be confident in Him, even when you
don't understand. He never required us to understand everything. We are to
simply trust Him.