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Steadfastness Steadfastness implies stability, constancy, and faithfulness: and refers to the condition of holding fast, or remaining firmly established. It is our duty and delight to be steadfast in Christ Jesus. The question is how can we maintain our steadfastness? Firstly, by Devotion and Prayer. The speed, excitement, and unrest of today, tends to displace contemplation upon eternal things. Luke 6:12 records that Jesus went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God, and if such a continual correspondence in thought and mind with the Heavenly Father was appropriate for Jesus, who was perfect, how much more necessary for us to come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Secondly, Knowledge. The inspired Word is a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path: (Psa.119:105) it is, indeed, a means of our sanctification. "Do thou continue in the things which thou didst learn and wast convinced of, knowing thou hast been instructed." (2 Tim.3:14 Diaglott) Thirdly, Heart Reliance. The Apostle’s words in Romans 8:38,39, declares that he was persuaded that nothing would be able "to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus." We are to be similarly confident and steadfast. We are to be fired by a resolve that no opposition must interfere with our Christian walk, and cultivate such a desire for the Kingdom that no discouragement can quench. Anyone who appreciates fully, and believes, the exceeding great and precious promises of God to the Church, will make haste and appropriate them to himself: and with steadfastness will so run as to obtain. Surely we want to be Abraham’s Seed, and heirs according to the promise, through which Seed all families of the earth are to be blessed? Let us not be like Esau, who, for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright. We have been begotten of the Holy spirit, we have a birthright in the highest possible sense, and we are urged not to cast it away. We must see to it that the cravings of our fleshly mind are mortified, and that we quickly sever every cord that would bind us to earthly things. Fourthly, Associating ourselves with those who are similarly steadfast. "Exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." (Heb.10:25) Let us now consider the testing of our steadfastness. "The LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul." (Deut.13:3) Jesus was tested to the uttermost: all his experiences he realized were under the supervision of the Heavenly Father, and because God had permitted such experiences, Jesus was determined to prove his loyalty by patient endurance. His words were: "The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?" (John 18:11) Concerning ourselves we exclaim: "I come to do Thy Will, O God," and our Father replies: "will you be faithful under the conditions which I impose?" "Are ye able to drink of My cup?" "Are ye able to be dead with Christ?" "Crucified with Him?" We think of St. Paul’s attitude—"I am crucified with Christ!" (Gal.2:20) The illustrious Apostle, with all his great earthly possibilities, declared that he had been slain with Christ: the rooted affections and ambitions of the natural heart had been pierced with the nail of crucifixion. Concerning all the Lord’s followers, Gal.5:24, does not read, they that are Christ’s will merely think about crucifying the flesh: but "they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh," and it is through this process that we reduce the area of our humanity, in order that we may broaden and extend the horizon of our heavenly natures. "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." (Rom.6:5) Let us ever remember the stupendous thought in 2 Thess.2:14, that we are called "to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." Do we realize that we have not attained our moral and spiritual ideals? Note the Apostle’s words in Phil.3:12: "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after." Let us remind ourselves that the one sad and painful course in the Christian life is to lower the standard of Christ: the practical abandonment of it, and the dull contenting oneself with the lower order of things. May we say with the Apostle: "I pursue, if indeed I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ." (Diaglott) "For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end." (Heb.3:14) Since we have chosen this course, brethren, let us be courageous. Long has been the warfare waged by the power of darkness against Jehovah and His anointed—now the closing phase of the conflict has set in: let us not shrink from it. "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." (Eph.6:11) Without this whole armour it is possible to turn away our ears from the truth unto fables. The possibility to thus fall away from the truth is not accidental, see 1 Cor 11:19 (Diaglott): "For it is necessary that there should be factions (heresies) among you, so that the approved may be apparent among you." Those who are approved by God will endure the tests and stand firm in the faith and the love of God. "Beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness." (2 Pet.3:17) Soldiers of Christ arise JHM |
