HEBREWS 10:23

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

TO PONDER

We all will see tough times and go through periods of struggle in life, times where we even question how we will make it through. So how do we live in that ‘sure hope’ when our circumstances are working against our faith?

One thing we forget about in our individualistic age driven by consumerism and the idea of personal autonomy is that the Books of the Bible was written to an ‘us’ rather than a ‘me’. Most times when we read the word ‘you’ in the Bible we really should remember to tap into our Western Sydney bogan (I can say that because we live in and love ‘Penrif’/Penrith) and put an ‘S’ on the word ‘you’ to make it plural. 

Walking with Jesus is not a solo sport, it’s not about you its more about us!

Today’s verse gives a hint that while we may read it alone it actually was written for a community, not so much as a follower of Jesus but as a community of ‘followers’ of Jesus by the use of words like ‘us’ and ‘we’. The statement ‘let us hold unswervingly to the hope’ could just be showing us that even our hope is a team sport. In fact the next verse tells us how we can hold onto that promised sure hope when it says to stop worrying about your issues, your hard times and think about others (my paraphrase).

Here it is; ‘And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds’. So to hold unswervingly to hope we ‘become church’, we become community, stop thinking about ourself and spur others on. 

PRAYER:  Faithful Father, I thank you for church, not the building, not a place to go to but your family of everyday people who I get to walk with daily, for the chance to spur others on to demonstrate the sure hope they have to others. This is your church, your family and I get to be a part of it.  Amen.

Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside