I John 2:28 “And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.”
I have recently started jogging. I’m still building up my endurance, and sometimes, when I feel tired and out of breath, I’m tempted to stop before I reach my goal. It would be easier to just collapse in the grass than to continue on. But I know the only way I will build up my endurance is to keep going. Eventually, I’ll feel stronger, and the journey won’t seem so hard.
Have you ever felt embarrassed or ashamed by your behavior, or frustrated with your circumstances? Sometimes, when it comes to our journeys of faith, we just want to give up. We want to throw in the towel, or collapse in the grass. But when that happens, we need to dust ourselves off and get right back on the path. We need to keep going!
John urges us to continue in Him, so that we won’t have any reason to hang our heads when we stand before Christ. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that glorious moment of His appearing to be spoiled because I fell short of the goal of following Him. I don’t want to feel ashamed because I gave up.
So how do we continue in Him? After all, we make mistakes. We all trip up every now and then. But that’s no reason to halt our journeys of faith! We just need to keep doing those things that we know will move us toward our goal of being like Christ. When we spend time daily in His Word, in prayer, in worship, we continue in Him. When we make it a habit to show love and kindness to others, to put their needs before our own, we continue in Him. When we strive daily to make our own souls look just a little more like Christ, to reflect more of His nature and character, we continue in Him. When we make it our daily desire to become like Him, then He is pleased with us. And if He is pleased with us, we can be confident and unashamed before Him.
Dear Father, More than anything, I want to please You. Please help me to continue in You, each day of my life.
Amen
Just what I needed to hear this morning, Renae! Thanks!
Hi Jeanette! It’s just what I need to hear, a lot of mornings! 🙂
Yes, Lord. Help me to be faithful and determined.
Jean
Jean, you are one of the most faithful people I know. Lord, help me to be faithful like Jean. And Jeanette, too.
Renae, I like the way you detail the different ways we can continue in Him. It’s an encouragement to see that even though there are times we may mess up, there are many other ways that show we are continuing in the faith. (By the way, you go girl with your jogging! 🙂 I’m impressed!)
good word picture, friend! so you’re jogging . . . you go, girl!
Thanks, y’all! Last week I was doing 1.8 miles, twice a day, and jogging about 1.2 of that. (Total 3.6 miles, jogging 2.4.) Yesterday and today I’ve slacked off, only doing it once a day. But I’ll get there!
Thanks for the encouragement!