{"id":16497,"date":"2026-01-15T21:45:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=16497"},"modified":"2026-01-15T21:45:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:45:47","slug":"keeping-the-faith-january-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=16497","title":{"rendered":"Keeping the Faith (January 14)"},"content":{"rendered":"


Download MP3 Audio Track<\/strong> . . . or listen on SoundCloud<\/strong>, YouTube<\/strong>, or Spotify<\/strong><\/p>\n

“When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose” (Acts 11:23).<\/p>\n

SADLY, SOME PEOPLE MAKE A COMMITMENT TO CHRIST, BUT THEY GET TO WHERE THE COMMITMENT DOES NOT MEAN ANYTHING TO THEM. They do not \u201cremain faithful to the Lord,\u201d as Barnabas urged the new converts in Antioch to do. And the New Testament is clear about the consequence of unfaithfulness: to go back on our commitment to Christ is to go back to being lost.<\/em> The writer of Hebrews said that \u201dwe have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end\u201d (Hebrews 3:14).<\/p>\n

Jesus did not mince words about our commitment to His salvation. He said, \u201cNo one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God\u201d (Luke 9:62). So anytime we talk about obeying the gospel, let\u2019s also talk about continuing<\/em> to obey it. \u201cLet us run with endurance the race that is set before us\u201d (Hebrews 12:1). Until the victory is fully ours, we must . . . continue.<\/em><\/p>\n

Few of the virtues we might adopt are more important than faithfulness. To be reliable is one of the finest things in life. And, of course, to be a traitor is one of the most despicable. So we should aspire to trustworthiness and steadfastness in our commitment. We can count on God; He should be able to count on us also.<\/p>\n

For persons broken by sin as we are, learning God\u2019s character \u2014 allowing Him to remake us \u2014 is a growth process that takes time. In Christ, we \u201care being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another\u201d (2 Corinthians 3:18). Surely we must not give up before the process has reached its goal.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, it is love and gratitude for grace that will keep us faithful. Forgiven, we want<\/em> to grow. We want<\/em> to continue. Our most fervent desire is to be all our Father wants us to be, forever.<\/p>\n

Thine am I, I was born for thee,
\nWhat wouldst thou, Master, make of me?
\nGive me death or give me life
\nGive health or give infirmity
\nGive honor or give obloquy
\nGive peace profound or daily strife,
\nWeakness or strength add to my life;
\nYes, Lord, my answer still shall be
\nWhat wilt thou, Master, have of me?
\n(Teresa of \u00c1vila)<\/p>\n

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Download MP3 Audio Track . . . or listen on SoundCloud, YouTube, or Spotify “When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose” (Acts 11:23). SADLY, SOME PEOPLE MAKE A COMMITMENT TO CHRIST, BUT THEY GET TO WHERE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[348,2829,441],"class_list":["post-16497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-devotionals","tag-faith","tag-january","tag-keeping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}