Hold Fast

          Sometimes, when we are in a period of difficulty in our life, someone will exhort us to “get a grip” on things. I had a heart attack a number of years ago and had the usual amount of visitors that came to see how I was doing. As I lay in the hospital in Charleston, WV, one man came and said to me, “You seem to be taking this well.” I guess I had put up a good front because after he left, I thought, “I am not taking this well at all.” I was 51 years old and had a heart attack so the prospect at that time was not at all pleasing to me. While it was true that no one said, “get a grip on it” I still had just gone with the flow. What was done, was done and I couldn't change what had happened. There was not a “restore point” as in computers and so could not go back to one month before the heart attack and change the outcome. Hebrews 10:23 says, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)”

          We had a preacher at our assembly the other day that reminded us to “hold fast” to our faith and who had exhorted us to not throw in the towel, so to speak, but to hold fast to the end. I looked up the little two word phrase and found that there are nine reverences in the King James Version. One of them perhaps would not apply to the positive exhortation, but the other eight do apply and exhort us to “hold fast” to several things during our Christian life. The writer of Hebrews here exhorts us to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. I can say that I have not wavered in my profession thus far and do not see any circumstance that would make me waver in the future. While I am holding fast to my profession of faith in Christ, God has been holding fast to me. Our salvation doesn't depend on our holding fast to God, as He is the One Who is holding us fast. There are times in some people's life where they seem to just plain give up. There are some who frankly have said that they are no longer Christians and have what they call a deconversion. It is basically a renouncing of your faith. I would say that they never had it in the first place but if they did, even their own actions couldn't remove themselves from the hand of God. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are in Christ and Christ is in the Father. It is double security. John 10:27-30 reminds us, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.” It is as if we are in a double grip of both the Son and the Father. Romans 8:39-39 also remind us that nothing, including ourselves, can remove us from the love of God. We fit under the category of “any other creature.” We can't even remove ourselves. You may feel as if you are not saved, or a disciple, or a believer, but that doesn't change the reality of it from God's perspective. You may be doing something that is not pleasing to God but God doesn't throw you away because of it. God is holding you fast. We are not to come before God and say, “Okay, I quit.” This is one time that you can't quit and walk away because God is holding you fast. Therefore, may we all, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, hold fast our profession without wavering. Praise God that He is holding us fast in all of the storms of life.