Day 2612 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Hebrews 3:14 NIV

Yesterday we celebrated something that has a personal connection to each of us. It's not just some story that we've decided to keep remembering so that we can have parties and eat more than we should. It's a historical event that has meaning for every person that has ever taken a breath on this earth. The resurrection of Christ marks the victory over death, but not just for Jesus alone. It marks the victory over death for every single person who chooses to die to sin and accept the new life that God offers through Christ.

That's what is so special about the story of what Jesus did in those few days. He became human to bear our human iniquities and carry them all to the cross and then onward to the grave where He left them dead and buried when He rose and left that tomb vacant just a few days after His sacrifice. He came to this earth, humbled Himself to our level so that we could find that same humility and that same power over sin through His gift of salvation.

In short, He came to bring us back to Himself after we'd spent our lives prior wandering all over the place looking for joy and fulfillment in every place other than on our knees.

That's why Easter is more than just a long weekend. It's a change. It's a renewal. It's a gift that helps us understand that we're not destined to spend forever on this rock. It's a realization that the lives we've lived do in fact lead to death, but that through a kind of love that this world can't offer, we don't have to live in fear of that death because the Son of God took care of that for us. So instead, through faith in Christ, we have the hope and the promise of eternity.

But there's a caveat. We gain that gift of eternal salvation through the continuation of our choice to live by faith in Jesus. It's not a one and done kind of deal. It isn’t just something we pull out for holidays. We don't say, "Yeah, I'll take it" and then go right about living the lives we'd lived up to that point. We can't just assume that a one-time prayer offered up when we felt passionately about this idea of salvation is enough to seal our eternity. It takes perseverance. It's a matter of continual growth. It's a life-long journey that will never be finished as long as we're on this side.

Sadly, much of what our world thinks of as faith has been relegated to holidays and desperate thoughts when life’s getting a little sideways. We’ve gotten to the point where we don’t have the interest in things that take time. We want our lunch thrown at us through a window so we can guzzle it down and get back to being busy. Nobody has patience. Nobody is willing to put time and effort into things. That’s why it seems like faith is only something that people think about on Christmas or Easter, and then they’re right back to focusing on everything that they usually think about.

That’s not how any of this works!

There are those out there who tell people that all you have to do is pray this one sinner's prayer once and you're good to go. And people are fine with that. They want that drive-thru, one time, hurry up and move on kind of faith. As wonderful and welcoming and convenient as that sounds, it doesn't explain the significance of what that sinner’s prayer means. It doesn't express the need for a relationship that is continuously built with the one that prayer is offered up to. Seeing faith as a one-time, sign on the dotted line and drive away kind of thing misses the entire point. The point is that we're changed through faith.

Much like the idea of the death, burial, and resurrection story of Easter. A part of us dies. The sinful desires are choked out. The selfishness that we've always lived by is left in the tomb. Change. New life. Different priorities. And those things don't just ask for perseverance. They demand it.

Friends, conviction is one of the necessary aspects of a true faith. It should mean something to us. It should be something that we're so passionate about that we spend every day craving more and more of this new life that God has offered us. Faith is a relationship, and relationships take focus, effort, and perseverance. We simply can't afford to see this faith in Christ any other way.

The whole key, as this verse in Hebrews reminds us, is that we don't just stop half-way in. You and I and offered salvation if we believe in Christ and accept His promise of forgiveness through the blood He shed on the cross. But if our lives aren't changed, then can we truly say that we do believe? If we go back to doing the same things we've always done, then what proof do we have that we've accepted Him as our Lord? If we’re in a hurry to get it finished up then how important is it to us? If our lives today look the same as they did before we opened our hearts to Jesus, then did we really open our hearts to Jesus? Or did we simply fall into this assumption that all it took was repeating a sentence just once or feeling a little happier whilst celebrating a worldly holiday?

Please don't think that faith is just something we lean on when we need something or when we feel bad or when we've made a mistake. It isn’t something to be saved up and celebrated a couple of times a year. Faith is a way of life. It's a daily choice to die to self and live for Christ. Faith is a journey that we will spend the rest of our lives pursing. Don't overlook or ignore the perseverance required. Don't let the joy and excitement fade now that some holiday is over. We're in this to the end. And if it's not our main goal and highest priority every moment of every day, then we should probably ask ourselves exactly what it is that we're doing. Because living by faith is something we choose to do, not once or every now and then, but every single day until we have no days left.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold