HOLD FAST

 

Php 2:13  for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 

Php 2:14  Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 

Php 2:15  that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 

Php 2:16  holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. 

When we submit to God through Christ Jesus, then it is He who works in you and through you to accomplish his will. We still have that old nature that must be put off; the grumbling and complaining. Have you ever seen our nation so full of grumblers, complainers, blamers, destroyers as there is today? They do not want to keep the laws, they want to defund the police and change the constitution. Cities are burned and stores looted with the mayors and governors approving of this. They need to come to Jesus and repent so that they might be saved from the wrath of God on the children of disobedience. If not, they will spend a good part of their life in jail.

We are to be blameless and innocent children in a crooked and perverse generation. Let the light of God shine. Hold fast to the word of God so that when Jesus comes for us we can be proud, because he approves of us. Pride usually is bad in the Bible, but as obedient servants if Christ approves of us we can be proud to be included in the eternal family of God. What is the world proud of? Hold fast to the word of life.

I used to do scuba diving and I saw some beautiful things in the ocean. One place there was a forest of kelp growing from the ocean floor. The kelp trees swayed in the currents but the roots were stuck to the rocks. The secure fastening to the rocks was called the "hold fast."  We are to be like this, holding fast to the rock that is Jesus and then we will survive the storms of life.