Hold Fast to God in 2013

I was asking for a simple word from the Father to start this year with and He simply dropped in my heart “Hold fast to Me in this season more than ever before.”

In the Scriptures the number that represents new beginnings is (or so I am informed) 8. In the New King James Version the phrase ‘hold fast’ is mentioned eight times in the New Testament. One of the mentions is in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 - ^“Test all things; hold fast what is good.”

Firstly this idea of testing all things is not a license to judge everyone and everything from whatever narrow perspective or interpretation you believe to be righteous. This kind of negative judging is simply called condemnation.

Condemning others is a sign of childishness, but accepting people beyond their faults is a sign of childlikeness. Just as trying to please people is a form of childishness, being free to be you is a form of childlikeness.

I recently asked a question of a well-known Christian leader who has been at the leading edge of many significant moves of God in the last thirty years or so. The question was what five words first spring to your mind to describe God?

Now in his late 60’s and still pioneering he responded with these five words – Love, Grace, Mercy, Forgiveness, and FUN! – I believe this is a childlike and mature view of God.

Knowing you are loved by God will bring such a confidence and childlikeness. My five-year-old daughter knows I love her so much and when I say to her as I often do “I love you sweetie – you are wonderful”

She replies, “Yes I am wonderful and I love you too!”

You see all this self-effacing false humility mumbo jumbo that so seems to be a part of religion is not what Father God wants to hear on the lips of His children or see in their hearts.

A judgmental attitude usually stems from the hurt and pain of rejection and not feeling loved. The antidote to this is a decision to ask for and continually be open to receive more of the Love of the Father and the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ by His Spirit.

Jesus simply put it this way in Matthew’s Gospel we read (7:1-2)

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

Let Love be the measure we use and if we sometimes feel we need to use another measure then we can use grace or mercy or forgiveness. Whatever scriptures a person quotes in order to scare people into loyalty to God by emphasizing His acts of judgment hundreds more can be found to highlight God’s love and longsuffering. Our Father does not want a people loyal to Him and His purpose through fear and subjugation but through responding to His great Love for us demonstrated in Christ Jesus and His great grace towards us who believe.

Testing everything is not a negative practice – It is seeing through God’s eyes, it is putting everything you are and that comes your way under scrutiny for the sole purpose of finding that which is good and worthy and beautiful in it and bringing that to the fore.

Hold on to what is good – from your past, from the past of those you are doing life with – Hold fast to the good – In your experience of God – hold fast to the good! But ditch the rest and move into greater grace this year. Holding fast to God is not limiting yourself to past revelation and practice that boxes God in, putting a ceiling on your expectation. Holding on to God is holding on to the Limitless One, the Almighty, Father God. The one who can go beyond and do superabundantly more than we could ever ask or imagine, think, plan, hope or dream according to His power that is within you, according to Love that never fails.

Hold fast to God through Jesus this year. Hold fast to His Word, hold fast to His Spirit and I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed.