But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end...

   - Hebrews 3.13, 14

Therefore, let God never permit me to lose the people that He has won in the ends of the earth. I pray God to give me perseverance and to deign to allow me to give faithful testimony of Him until my death, for the sake of my God.

   - Patrick, Confession, Irish, 5th century

Patrick knew where the power came from.

He knew he had gone to Ireland because God called him irresistibly. He knew he’d been able to preach to so many people because God had opened wide doors of opportunity for him. He knew many had come to Christ because God had brought them. He knew he’d been able to labor faithfully for so many years because the power of God was working in and through him.

Patrick was a true apostle of grace, and by grace he prayed that he would have grace to continue as such all his days.

The life of faith is a continuous struggle. It’s more than just a good beginning – believing in Jesus – and a happy-ever-after ending. In between the new birth and the new heavens and new earth the new life gets worked out day by day in faithful submission to God’s Word and Spirit, and faithful obedience to His calling.

And all this is by the grace of God, Who enables us to hold fast our confidence firm to the end. We do not persevere in faith in order to be saved; rather, we persevere in faith because we are saved, and because God Who has saved us is at work within us to will and do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2.13).

Our challenge is to stay in the battle, take up each day the work of service and the ministry of love that brings the power of the Spirit to life through our words and deeds.

As we reach out in faith to live out our confident hope, the Spirit strengthens our souls and transforms our lives, so that holding our confidence firm to the end becomes just the sweetest, most natural of things.

How’s your confidence these days? Are you boasting in the Lord? Reaching out to others? Rejoicing to know Him at work within and through you day by day?

Yes, it can be a struggle. But if it’s real to you, and if you continually avail yourself of the grace of God, that struggle will lead to many fruitful and exhilarating days of following Jesus.

Psalm 105.45 (Warrington: “Give to Our God Immortal Praise”)
So let us all in our Savior confide, and in His holy Law abide.
Let us observe His glorious Word, and praise our sovereign, faithful Lord!

Lord, grant me grace to strive for holiness, with sincerity and joy of heart, all the days of my life. Adapted from The Rule of Cormac mac Cioionáin

T. M. Moore, Principal
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