August 2019

Keep going, press on, don’t stop!

Putting our confidence in God is enough to keep us going, urges Gavin Calver, Director of Missions for the Evangelical Alliance

We’re living in choppy waters, but we must press on. I’m a keen runner, I have run a few marathons and you know what the key is in marathon running – keep going, press on, don’t stop.

I ran one against Mo Farah a few years ago... he beat me by two hours, but that’s his full-time job. The key is to not stop, to keep pressing on. You may ask me what time I ran the marathon in, but my immediate question back will be, “How many have you run?” The issue is not the time, it’s keeping going. As a Church, the issue is not the pace, but the destination. Keep going, press on.

Hebrews 10 says, “Do not throw away your confidence, it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere, so that when you have done the will of God you will receive what he has promised, for in just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay. My righteous one will live by faith and I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back. But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.”

This passage teaches us that this is not a time for shrinking back, but, actually, if we persevere, we will eventually get what is promised. The prophet Habakkuk cried out

to God and the response was to be patient. We have to keep going!

I’m surprised at how stressed the Church seems to be about Brexit... there will be bigger challenges which come our way. We don’t need to worry about the current political landscape... we need to keep pressing on.

Confidence

We’re not talking about over-confidence – we can’t come to God with over-confidence, but we certainly do need to place all our confidence in him. Do not throw away your confidence, do not forget who is with you. Don’t forget you have something to declare, there is a great move of God in

this nation and you can be a part of it if you have confidence to speak up.

Perseverance

In Greek, the Bible speaks of an enduring perseverance when life becomes difficult – don’t allow the state of life to beat you. We are called to be shapers of this world, not shaped by the world; called to be culture influencers, not culture followers.

Jesus never said it would be easy – some people think the Bible says follow Jesus and everyone will be healthy and wealthy – but the most common promise in Scripture is actually that God will be with us. Nobody said it would be easy, but we hold to what we know... God is with us.

Faithfulness

We live in an instant culture and it seems the only thing people stick with through life is their football team. But in an unfaithful culture, we are to be counter-cultural and be faithful to Jesus as long as there is breath in our lungs, because he is nothing but faithful to us. Jesus doesn’t call us to be much more than faithful. We do what we can do and leave the rest to him, because he is the one who is truly faithful. We have to be faithful in our communities, we have to be faithful to Jesus and he will be faithful to us.

Don’t focus on church growth, don’t be faithful to your ministry, be faithful to Jesus because healthy things grow. We have to get serious about our spiritual disciplines and holiness so we can invest in our relationship with Jesus.

Stay faithful to Jesus and press on.

Enjoy this article? Don't forget to share