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.
How can you have faith during times when it looks like nothing is happening?
Faith is not logical. Faith is believing in the supernatural. To believe what happens naturally you don’t need faith. I read a beautiful article about the biggest math-miracles that is centered around Moses and the Israelites.
In the desert, the Israelites had to get food and how do you feed 35 lakh people?
According to the quartermaster General of the American army, Moses needed 1500 ton (14 lakh kg) of food daily. A 6-km long train would be needed to transport the food.
The food had to be cooked with firewood and you must remember: they were in the desert. 4000 ton (36 lakh kg) of wood would be needed per day and again a few trains, each approximately 2-km long, to transport the wood.
Something to think about: they moved through the desert for 40 years.
What about water? Just enough to drink and wash-up a little, they would need 50 million litre each day and a freight train with tankers, approximately 19-km long, would be needed to bring the water.
There were only a few waterholes in the desert. How did they get enough water?
Another thing!
They had to pass through the Red Sea in one night! If they had a footpath where they walked two-two at a time, the line would be 1280-km long and it would take them 35 days and nights to pass through.
So, there must have been a path through the Red Sea of about 5-km wide for 5000 people to be able to walk beside each other in go.
Another problem: they had to camp each night. A camping sight of 1200 square meter was needed, that is 40-km wide and 48-km long.
Do you think Moses had it all worked out to the finest detail before the big move?
No, he was only an ordinary man with an unwavering faith in GOD! If God has called him, he will take care of everything. That is the faith you and I need to inherit the promises of God in our life.
You don’t just need faith; you need patience, which is another thing you need to inherit the promise. The promise will be inherited only in God’s time.
In fact, the test of your faith is your patience. And when your patience is perfect, you will lack nothing. That’s what we read in James 1:3,4
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces [a]patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be [b]perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
Romans 8:24 - For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
How can you have this patience?
Remember, that God never forgets you. You become impatient when you think God forgot the promise. No, God never forgets His promise.
Hebrews 6:10 - For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
1. God hasn’t forgotten you.
The writer of Hebrews encourages them to not be discouraged because God hasn’t forgotten about them.
In Revelation 2 and 3, John brings letters to 7 churches in Asia. These 7 churches are examples of churches and God’s people today and God’s word to them. In each of those letters, there is a particular way in which Jesus begins his letter. He says, “I know… I know your works, I know your deeds…
Rev 2:2 – to church at Ephesus - I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. You might think God is not looking at your deeds, your hard work. God sees our work, our labour – He bottles our tears. He keeps a count of our wanderings.
You have kept count of all my wandering and my weeping. You've stored my many tears in your bottle—not one will be lost. For they are all recorded in your book of remembrance". Ps 56:8
All your wanderings in the year 2024, all your prayers, all your tears, your hard work, your labour – God has a record of them. Why should he keep a record? Because he cares about you and he is going to answer. And they have eternal value. Nothing done in Jesus’ name will be forgotten or in vain.
The other reason we can have patience with faith is because He who promised is faithful
Hebrews 10:23: "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful"
You can be patient/hold fast because you know the one who promised is faithful. Your faith is not in you, your circumstance but in the faithfulness of God.
God’s promises are reliable.
Hebrews 6:13-15
13 When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” 15 And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
Abraham was not just a father of faith, but I believe a father of patience as well.
How do you express your faith in God? Or how did the Old Testament saints express this faith. Through patience.
When we face a delay, it’s an opportunity to choose to act maturely, with patience, or like a toddler, with a childish tantrum. Vs 1 of chapter 6 begins.. 6 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity,
When we are patient and spiritually mature, we are able to understand that God is working for our good and moulding us into the person He wants us to become. Whenever He delays, remember that He’s always faithful and will provide for us in the best possible way at the perfect time.
At some point in time, all of us are waiting for something whether we like it or not. We are waiting for some things to happen, some people to change, some situations to work in our favour, some suffering to end, some healing, and some reward for our work. But in this waiting, how much patience are we demonstrating? It’s easy to get impatient and this impatience will make us lose our faith and eventually our hope.
That is why Heb 6:12 says, Heb 6:12 - We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
While asking people to keep trusting God as they wait patiently for the fulfilment of the promise, the writer of Hebrews says one more thing. Don’t become lazy.
Demonstrate diligence and don’t become sluggish or lazy
What does it mean to become lazy during waiting?
Sometimes, when we wait, we come to a point of giving up hope. If it happens let it happen. Just leave it. Because you get tired of holding on to the promise and waiting patiently for it’s fulfilment. We become complacent over time. God does not like complacency.
In Rev 3:15-16, while writing to the church at Laodicea, He says, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
It’s a state when you become complacent. It’s okay if I don’t spend time with God. It’s okay if I don’t meditate on God’s word. I am okay the way I am. This is state of becoming spiritually lazy.
Here the author of Hebrews is warning against this kind of laziness and complacency. Do not become lazy, continue to hold fast to your faith and patience and inherit the promises that God has given for your life.
Then we read about the example of Abraham.
13 When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.”[d] 15 And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
Why is Abraham called the father of faith. He was holding on to the faith for so long
While we read Genesis 12–21 in one sitting, Abraham and Sarah lived it day by day, nine thousand mornings and more. Abraham had patience and faith operating simultaneously.
Romans 4:20,21 - 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.
Zech 9:12 - Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.
God calls you to be prisoner of hope and not a prisoner of your circumstances. This means that no matter what your circumstance is, you’ll stand in hope and will not allow the circumstance to determine your destiny or to let you down. You will stand by faith that God is in complete control.
God has the power to do what he had promised.
Numbers 23:19 - God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind.
1 Cor 1:20 - All his promises are Yes and Amen in Christ. [For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.]
Titus 1:2 – God does not lie
Don’t give up hope. God bless you!
