BE THE FIRST AND NOT THE LAST

Dear Believer,

I often imagine the mood and the countenance on the face of Jesus at the time He uttered certain statements. How did He look when He said this:

Matthew 19:30  
But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.
Isn’t that concerning?

This tells us:

1. If you are doing so well as a Believer, you should keep your spiritual position jealously because it is possible to get knocked down to an inferior position.

2. If you are doing rather badly, you don’t have to continue in that position; there is room for you at the top. You don’t have to remain the tail.

To me, these are great news items. We don’t know exactly how Jesus looked when he uttered that statement, but I imagine that He said it solemnly as a warning and also as an encouragement.
It is very easy to lose one’s position in the faith. Paul said to the Corinthians:

2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.

He told them to carry out a thorough examination of their spiritual lives to know if they were still in the faith. This means a person can be out of the faith and not know it!

Paul isn’t saying here that we should engage in negative introspection, but that we let the Holy Spirit search us and tell us exactly where we are standing with God. Some have drifted away without realizing it.

With all the pressures in this world and every kind of distractions trying to take our focus away from the Lord, we must keep looking and holding fast to the profession of our faith.

If you started well, there are malevolent forces trying to get you to abandon your race or to slow down. Paul told the Galatians:

Galatians 5:7
You were running beautifully! Who was it that cut into your way and kept you from obeying the truth?

Here we have people who were doing so well running their race with patience (Hebrews 12:2), but they allowed some individuals, or maybe circumstances, to cut into their way to slow them down, distract them and cause them to stop running.

This is the story of many Believers today.

Hebrews 4:1-2
Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

Faith is the driving force. Faith does not abandon the journey because of pressures and disappointments.
So if you are feeling like pulling back, close your eyes now and imagine Jesus standing before you and telling you, “Don’t end up being the last; be the first.”

How does He look while saying that? See the love on His face and experience it now.

Reach out to your Father in prayer:
Dear Father, you have called me into Yourself through Jesus Christ the Son. You have made me Your own. I receive strength today to hold on to the faith and run my race without wavering. Help me to focus on You on this journey and not drop by the wayside, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Your friend,
Deon.
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© August 2020 DailyVotions by Deon Akintomide.