Holding
14 For we have, all alike, become sharers with Christ, if we really hold our first confidence firm to the End;
Heb 3:14 (WEY)
Almost sounds like financial counsel- if you just hold these shares through all the difficult times there will be a great payoff in the end. How sad it will be, however, if, after all the hard times and diligent persistence, it just gets to be too much and the opportunity of a lifetime is given up for the shallow promise of another holding. As wonderful as it might be to have held those priceless notes, all of their value is completely time-related, so that their only true moment of worth is when they mature. Until that moment they may be traded or sold, but compared to the treasure they represent at the end, all these other options are but miniscule fractions.
At the initial moment of salvation, when a new name is written down in glory and a new birth into the kingdom inspires angels’ rejoicing, there is within the grasp of the new convert a treasure of life that has infinite promise of return. It has an immediate impact on life as it touches every aspect of living with its healing, strength, provision and hope. When it has its greatest worth, however, is when it is held confidently all the way till its maturity as life here on earth comes to an end. All the way up to that point it may be sold or traded for other shares, and, sadly, this is too often the case, where the advertisements of earthly investments effectively diminish its appreciation and loosen its grip. At the end those other things may be held in large volumes, but they will have 0 worth at the very moment when only shares in Christ are of any value whatsoever. To have let go of sharing with Him for owning the temporal things of this life would be most tragic.
So how is sharing with Him maintained and held with confidence all the way to the end? How are the odds defied and the enemy’s enticements overcome so that the greatest return on an investment can truly be realized? As He is continually magnified and allowed to occupy the thoughts and passions of the heart, as the treasure of Jesus is held higher than other shiny trinkets by an ever-present praise and humility in worship, there will be a firewall raised to resist any of the dangerous invaders of the heart. Rather than just adding the Lord to the other elements in life and trying to maintain Him like another holding in the investment portfolio, He must become the one possession under which every other element resides. Where pressure is felt to become anxious about family, occupation, finances, society, etc., there is an opportunity to release those cares into the possession of the Greater One, trusting Him with the very things that were attempting to displace Him. In allowing them to decrease in value and perspective next to Him, there is an appropriate adjustment of priorities that maintains confidence in Him through the greatest of challenges and the most trying storms. Instead of abandoning the embrace of Him for another resident of the heart, the steady choice of Him above all others will make the relationship with Him more and more stable, unshakeable to the end.
There will be a return, there will be a great reward, and there will be a sure thing of priceless an eternal value if the confidence in Him will but be held in a worship life, unmovable to the end.