For I am Persuaded...the Wayfarer 9/12/14

For I am Persuaded
9/12/14

“Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:

Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.

For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”

(2^nd Timothy 1:8-12)

Faith must be given that what has been promised will be delivered, whether immediately seen, or whether perceived as being delayed, whether immediate gratification of blessings are easily seen, or whether afflictions occur that would attempt to give reason to doubt  that promise!

Surrender should never be in the vocabulary of any, who having received the promise of Christ, may, and will of a necessity suffer the afflictions associated with a world in denial of Him and the promise given.

Being a “partaker” of that affliction is to be expected, and met with the surety of that promise, if belief is true, if worship is given in Spirit and in Truth, simply because, IF a soul has been committed to Christ, It will be KEPT, and may not be taken from him by any power in existence within the universe created by God!

As the world hurtles on toward the destination intended for it as lies within the master plan initiated at its beginning, as the prophecy given by those to whom it was revealed by God is fulfilled, those old prophets and Christ adjure us to hold fast to the faith of the promise.

Job withstood the criticisms of his “friends”, the harangue of even his own wife to simply curse God and die, not because of any immediate gratification or relief from the multitude of afflictions he faced, but because of the surety of that promise:

“Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,

As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty who hath vexed my soul;

All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;

My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.

God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.

My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?

Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?

Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call upon God?”

(Job 27:1-10)

Surely, if ever any man had reason to doubt, to lament his personal affliction, to question why, it was Job!

Yet he chose to hold fast to the promise given, and to refuse to deny that promise!

His question in the 8^th verse is pertinent to all who may truly claim belief.

Hope exists, not in lip service given, but in Truth of acceptance of the promise, Truth in belief in that promise even when all points the body and mind away from that promise.

The soul is not so easily pointed, or distracted from that Truth, nor may it deny that Truth!

“I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.

And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition: that the scripture might be fulfilled.

And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

That they may all be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe thou hast sent me.

And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.

Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

(John17:9-26)

Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

Amen and Amen
the Wayfarer