The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Stand Fast"
"Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle" (II Thessalonians 2:15).
The Apostle Paul called the Thessalonians believers to "stand fast" in that which had led them to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that which had enabled Paul to say of his brethren, "We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet (fitting), because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth (II Thessalonians 1:3). Faith and love characterized the Thessalonian believers, the fruits of God's grace in Christ in which Paul greatly desired his brothers and sisters to continue.
From the moment of our new birth through faith in the Lord Jesus, spiritual enemies seek to divert us away from the grace that both began and continues our walk with God. Only His freely given favor in Christ can spiritually birth the lost sinner. "You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1). Only the same favor can lead us to live in a manner that reveals and reflects the fact of our Lord's indwelling life. "Let us have grace, that we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear" (Hebrews 12:28). Our enemies well know this, seeking to "bewitch" us as they did the Galatian believers, unto whom Paul wrote an epistle of rebuke and restoration (Galatians 3:1). The Galatians had "fallen from grace" by seeking to justify themselves through works and rituals (Galatians 5:4). Christ had become "of no effect" to them regarding the life to which God called them. The Apostle therefore sought to lift up his brethren so that, like the Thessalonians, they could once again "stand fast" in the grace and truth of the Lord Jesus.
We awaken to each new day on a battlefield whereupon we must "fight the good fight of faith" (I Timothy 6:12). We can only fight if we stand, and we can only stand by the grace received through "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2). Let us expect challenges in this day to look away from our Lord and His grace rather than "unto." We fall from grace if we respond to the temptation. We arise as we repent and reaffirm God's freely given favor and enabling in the Lord Jesus. We stand and walk as we remember Paul's counsel to another fellowship of believers, the Colossians: "Continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel" (Colossians 1:23). Let us face the challenge with the weapons at our disposal, all of which we wield as we arise to fight "the good fight," the good fight of faith in the good Lord of grace.
"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."
(Colossians 2:6-8)
Weekly Memory Verse
My strength is made perfect in weakness.
(II Corinthians 12:9)
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