If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Colossians 1:23
Christianity is about learning to stay true to one’s decision to follow Jesus. Life has its ways of testing our resolve.
There is a good precedent since all the disciples abandoned Jesus at His arrest. This abandonment wasn’t a reflection of their love, rather an acknowledgment of their fear and uncertainty.
Faith will always have a shadow of fear to accompany it. For faith cannot be established beyond reasonable doubt. Indeed, it is the very fact of doubt that nurtures faith.
We have to decide if we can, and will, trust God despite circumstances that apparently deny the truth we lay claim to. Fortunately, we only have to find faith for the immediate circumstances of our own life.
The injury to faith in a promise is deep and long-lasting once broken. This is because faith can never be guaranteed. Activating it requires risk, and risk always exposes us to danger.
Christianity is a dangerous path to follow. It will test our resilience at every level of our being. It is said that the older we get the more risk-averse we become. The great danger here is that we fail to run with perseverance the race of faith.
The temptation to settle, an invitation that society appears to present with the illusion of a comfortable retirement, is deceit that if followed may rob following generations of witnessing how we live by faith up to and beyond the threshold of death.
Something to Consider: How risk averse are you by nature?
An Action to Take: Read Genesis 12–13 and discover how faith fuels an effective retirement. Abraham was 75 years old!
A Prayer to Make: ‘Lord, let me never lose sight or let go of the hope born of faith throughout my life.’
Photo by sanjiv nayak on Unsplash
Used with Permission
