To the End

Are You Faithful and an Overcomer?

Heb 3:6

6          But Christ as a son over His own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. (KJV)

Heb 3:14

14        For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. ;(KJV)

Matt 24:13

13        But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.(KJV)

In doing a study of Hebrews 3 this morning, verses 6 and 14 stood out to me and I remembered Jesus’ words in Matthew and noticed the “if” clauses.  If we hold fast the confidence, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast--Those are conditional statements.  To be partakers of Christ, to be His house, we also must hold fast to that confidence in Christ, hold on to it steadfastly, with no letting go, and must do so to the end.

You know, in studying Hebrews lately, the importance of faithfulness was repeatedly being stressed to me in regards to Jesus’ life.  As you know, Satan wanted to destroy and stop Him in the beginning,, and when He was baptized, Satan waited till Jesus was really weakened with hunger to give him those 3 temptations by which he hoped to foil God’s plans.  And when he did not succeed in that, scripture explains he went away for a while-till another opportune time.  So we know that Satan tried tempting Jesus again and again.  It was no one time thing.  On top of that, Jesus learned by the things He suffered.  What did He suffer?  The calls of His own flesh, the faithlessness and unbelief of people around Him, the necessity of living on earth under limitations that did not exist in Heaven.  And time and time again, Jesus proved faithful.  Time and time again, Jesus said “no” to the flesh’s desires, “no” to prideful thoughts, “no” to all those things that would displease the Father.  He didn’t give in, did He?  No, for if He had, He would never have been able to even face with and deal with the cross.  He would never have been able to have victory over sin and death.  And we would not have had a savior.

So we see our example in daily life is Jesus-His life of saying “no”to sin and having victory throughout  His life on a daily basis is our example to follow.  We too have to be overcomers if we want to have eternal life.  Look again at what Jesus said in Matt 24:13  So learning how to become an overcomer is not an option. 

How does a saved individual become an overcomer?

I Jn 5:4

4          For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. (KJV)

Our faith is the key, plus another key is the fact that as believers

2 Cor 4:6-7

6          For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7          But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

(KJV)

2 Tim 1:7

7          For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (KJV)

So God has given us the power to overcome.  We have the overcomer in us, Jesus Christ.  We have the Holy Spirit in us.  We even have the Father in us --all in the form of the Holy Spirit.  So by our faith we activate and use that power given us to over come. 

One last point-we have to stay connected to that power.  How-by a daily relationship and communication and meditation on His word.  You see, Jesus had to do the same thing.  He had to take time out-and no doubt did it on a daily basis, to go apart from everyone to spend time with His Father.  He needed refreshing from the Father, He needed to be bathed in the Father’s presence and communicate with Him, to be fortified for the daily challenges He faced.  We are given a glimpse of His human nature really coming to the forefront in the Garden of Gethsemene there on the Mount of Olives where He prayed for the cup to be removed from Him.  Yet His will being completely submitted to the Fathers-He said “not my will, but Yours be done.”  What did God do?  He sent an angel down to minister to Jesus.

Luke 22:43

43        And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. (KJV)

So if Jesus needed strengthening for the ordeal ahead, can you imagine you or I don’t for our daily lives?

Remember-Jesus said the work of God was to believe on Him-that is truly work because we get faced with faith battles regularly.  Don’t lose faith.  Stay connected to the Lord, keep walking by faith, and keep overcoming.  You can do it because “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.”

Go learn by practice how to be an overcomer and have a great weekend.  Your Good News Lady