It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. (2 Corinthians 1:21)
Standing firm, isn’t something we do, but something God does for us. He establishes us. He enables us to stand firm in our faith.
When we’re meeting a new neighbour, work colleague, or a new person at church, it may take some time to decide if a person is trustworthy. Credibility builds over time as we gauge their integrity and reliability. Trust is easily lost if we catch someone being deceptive. Whereas God’s trustworthiness has been built over centuries. The Bible is full of stories about God’s faithfulness to his people even when they aren’t faithful to him.
Our relationship with God isn’t maintained by our ability to keep up a program of attending church, Bible reading and prayer. We aren’t hanging onto his kingdom by our fingertips. We aren’t worried that he might forget or abandon us and pay more attention to someone who’s more effective or productive in their Christian life. No! God holds us all. He has the power to keep us. As Jude wrote, “Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away” (1:24).
Likewise, the writer of Hebrews quotes God as saying, “I will never [under any circumstances] desert you [nor give you up nor leave you without support, nor will I in any degree leave you helpless], nor will I forsake or let you down or relax My hold on you [assuredly not]!’” (Hebrews 13:5 AMP).
Therefore, we can relax, knowing that God holds us. We can rest in his hands, we are part of his kingdom, our future is assured. We stand firm because of the trustworthiness of God.
Other posts on this topic here.
