Faith And Patience: Inheriting The Promises Of God

Even as we start the new year, we probably have mixed emotions. On one side we are grateful to God for the year 2024 for God has given us life and protected us throughout this year. On the other side, we might be perplexed about the year 2025. Is the year 2025 going to be better than 2024? Is it going to be challenging? What would my future look like in 2025? Through this year, we might have had good moments, happy times, victories and celebrations. For some of us, the year might have been a very difficult one. We faced losses. We felt like a failure. And honestly, that makes us wonder what 2025 is going to look like.

For our meditation today, let’s turn our Bibles to Hebrews 6:11-12

We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

Don’t lose hope. If you want your hope to be fully realised, you need to be diligent.

As you started the year 2024, you would have hoped for so many things.

You would’ve hoped your family member whom you had been praying for so hard would finally be saved. You would’ve hoped the miracle you’ve been waiting for would have happened this year. You would’ve hoped you got a better job. You would’ve hoped you had a breakthrough in your workplace, relationships and finances. You would’ve hoped you’ll come out of debt. Or some of us may be thinking, I was waiting for this promise of God to be fulfilled in 2024 but it still hasn’t been fulfilled.

If you are in that state, this word is for you. Bible says, do not lose your diligence and hope.

The concept of time according to humans has three elements - past, present and future. But that does not apply to God. He is beyond the concept of time. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He has no beginning and no end. He is the First and the Last. Human concept of time does not work for God.

1 Peter 2:8 - But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day".

Are you losing your hope, that you had hoped for in the beginning of the year. Or are you still holding on to it?

Vs 11 - We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized.

To be hopeful is a gift from God. When there is no hope, life becomes lifeless.

Our God is a God of hope. Romans 15:13 says May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

There is a difference between worldly hope and biblical hope. You can hope to be successful in life, hope to be healed of a sickness, hope to be promoted, but this is no more than wishful thinking. Lots of people in this world hope and wish for things. So what makes biblical hope different from this hope.

Worldly hope is uncertain hope, but Biblical hope is not uncertain hope but a confident expectation. So if you have the promise of God, even if situations are unfavourable, you don’t see any signs, you can still wait in hope not with uncertainty but with a confident expectation. This confident expectation is faith. Faith adds substance to our hope.

Heb 1:1 – Faith is the substance of things hoped for… what gives me the confidence that I will receive what I hope for is my faith.

So, you might be hoping for many things but that hope will be realised only when it is mixed with faith.

Hebrews 4:2: "For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it"

In Hebrews 4, the apostle declares that the privileges of the gospel are greater than those of the Mosaic law. So when God’s word is declared in the church, it is spoken to all who hear it. But who benefits from it? The ones who have faith when they hear the word of God.

We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized.

What does it mean to show diligence? Show the same enthusiasm that you had at the beginning. When you started hoping for something, you were very excited. You were looking forward to it. But as days went by, months went by your diligence also came down. Here the author of Hebrews says if your hope needs to be fully realized, don’t lose your excitement. Hold on to your faith.