I can hold
in one hand all I will ever need to “do” life well, and when the appointed time
of my death arrives, it will usher me securely into the forever part of my
existence (Hebrews 9:27-28).
It is The Holy Bible. God’s written record of Who, What, When,
Where, Why, -- and How.All you and I ever needed to know bound in one volume! Awesome!
Or, as Henry Hugglemonster would say, “Roarsome!” ( If you don’t know who Henry is, you don’t have a toddler in your home who loves cartoons!)
Seriously, there is a written prescription for every ill encountered in life, and it is in The Book. A plan for life – a Master plan; a list of detailed instructions, and most importantly, for every time we get our insides tangled into a “hard knot,” there are myriads of reminders generously and lavishly thrown in to remind us that everything will one day be straightened out and cleared up. Moreover, the end of this truth-telling story is that all ends well for all who have believed in the Book’s originating Author, Who is God.
I used to
have a delicate gold chain necklace that I loved to wear with different charms
strung on it. Just about every time I
pulled it out to wear, that fragile chain had gotten tangled together into a knot. When it was especially tangled, we called it
a “hard knot” as compared to a “soft, loose knot” that could easily be
untangled.
Finally it
became too much of a nuisance to have to
pick out the knot, so I stopped wearing the chain rather than taking the time
to properly put it away and avoid the tangles.
Many people,
including me, have too often in our busy lives chosen to look at life that way,
too.
Too busy, too
rushed to deal properly and patiently with the seemingly unending string of
difficulties and disappointments that can wear us out, and we have given up on
some tangled things and relationships just to avoid the intense work of untangling
them.
Jesus said
we “ought always to pray and not lose heart.”
Luke 18:1 (ESV).
Praying is hard work, but losing heart is a
very serious matter that affects every area of life.
Various
Bible translations refer to losing heart as quitting, becoming faint, turning
coward and giving up, becoming discouraged.
Ouch.
God’s Word
grows more and more precious to me with each passing year. I’ve never loved it and treasured it more
than I do now. It is absolutely my
life-line as I grow more and more dependent upon its assurances and promises.
It is only
when I neglect the reading and studying of it that I begin to “lose heart,” and
focus on “the morass of {my}
mistakes.”
Sarah Young,
in Jesus Calling, has written
this: “Thinking that you should live an
error-free life is symptomatic of pride. … failure highlights your dependence
on {Jesus}, {Who is} able to bring
beauty out of the morass of your mistakes.”
Merriam
Webster’s definition of “morass: 1)
marsh, swamp; 2a) a situation that traps, confuses, or impedes; b) an
overwhelming or confusing mass or mixture.
Synonyms:
“entanglement…web…net…quagmire…quicksand…snare…trap.””
Entrapments
that entangle with intent to drown like wading off into a quagmire of quicksand…
Sounds just
like what the Adversary might have ordered for his ongoing strategy to deceive
many into becoming like him, by believing his lies, and being led astray from
belief in God.
“Jesus said to them, ‘If God were
your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor
have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. … You are of your father the devil, and
the desires of your father you want to do.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own
resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not
believe Me.” John 8:42,44-45.
“Be sober-minded; be watchful.
Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking
someone to devour. Resist him, firm in
your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experience by
your brotherhood throughout the world.” 1 Peter 5:8-9.
“…correcting
his opponents with gentleness. God may
perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may
come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being
captured by him to do his will.” 2
Timothy 2:25-26; please see verses 22-26.
Deception is
his game, with death as his aim: “And the great dragon was thrown down, that
ancient serpent, who is called the devil
and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and
his angels were thrown down with him.” Revelation
12:9.“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7.
The
deceiving devil is a defeated foe.
“A lion on a
leash.”-Ann Voskamp.
“And I
heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation and the power and the
kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser
of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our
God. And they have conquered him by the
blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their
lives even unto death. Therefore,
rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them!
But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in
great wrath, because he knows his time is short!’ ” Revelation 12:10-12.
He is
conquered, defeated and doomed – yet he fights on, and so must we! We fight the
good fight of faith, we do not grow faint and fear and turn coward. We do not quit or give up. We must not give
in to discouragement! See the apostle
Paul’s testimonial in 2 Timothy
4:7: “I
have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ
Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses
entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of
Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled n civilian pursuits, since his aim is
to please the One who enlisted him. … Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the
dead,…” 2 Timothy 2:1-4, 8a.
Jesus Christ
is our Leader, our Commander, and King.
He is the Founder of our faith, …
“the Author and finisher of our faith”…
He is the “champion Who initiates and perfects our faith…”
The Witness
Who came first, and we have many who have lived and died before us who have
been faithful to untangle the tangles in their own lives: see Hebrews 11.
“Therefore
then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne
testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that
sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is
set before us,Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself [reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials], so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds. Hebrews 12:1-3 (AMP).
“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? … –Jesus Christ; …. And the Spirit is the One Who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.” Please read 1 John 5:1-12.
We are more
than conquerors (Romans 8:31-39), because of our Redeemer. ¹
“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He
has redeemed from trouble and gathered from the lands, from the east and from
the west, from the north and from the south.”
Psalm
107:2-3.
Let us say
so – again and again; let us never
be silenced! “… You who make mention of the LORD, do not keep silent,” Isaiah 62:6.
The race of
life can feel like a long distance over rough terrain. But, there is a way to win, and not give up,
nor give in, but to finish it well. One
Way: Jesus Christ. See John 14:1-6. Because of Him, we finish well. He is coming back to claim His own. Let us be found faithful in Him.
“Hebrews
12:1-3 The Message (MSG) Discipline in a Long-Distance Race”
“Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these
veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip
down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no
parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus,
who both began and finished this race
we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was
headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything
along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now
he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your
faith, go over that story again, item by
item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your
souls!”
¹ To be a child of God, you must first
have a relationship with Christ.
John 3:16-18 (ESV): “For God so loved the
world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
perish but have eternal life. For God
did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the
world might be saved through Him.
Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe
is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son
of God.”
If you repent and turn from your sin, to
Christ, and “confess with your mouth
Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead; you
will be saved," according to God's Word, the Holy Bible, in Romans 10:9.
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