"Held in Christ" -2

 "I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me." (S.O.S. 7:10)

  "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." (John 10:27-28)

  Now that we have established that little issue, it is time to get down into the business of standing strong; as it has already been established, our strength is not within ourselves, it is found in God! If we think that we are somehow able to do anything on our own, we will find out, usually the hard way, that nothing we do outside of Christ will last. This life is temporary and will soon be gone; but the life that we have in Christ is eternal and will never fade away, ever! 

  Matthew Henry puts it like this: "The gracious discoveries of Christ's love to us should engage us greatly to rejoice in the hold he has of us, his sovereignty over us and property in us, which is no less a spring of comfort than a bond of duty." John says, "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments and not grievous." (1 John 5:3) It is our faith that gives us this comfort, not anything we might do or not do; faith that is placed in a love that knows no bounds! 

  The word, "desire," used here is found three times in the Scriptures; twice in the beginning of Genesis, and then here within this verses above. The first use of the word, was when God used it to explain the curse He was placing upon Eve, or women, saying, "and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." (Genesis 3:16c) The second use is found as God explains to Cain what his sin will do if he does not do well, saying, "And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." (Genesis 4:7b) It is as though sin becomes a predatory animal, eating away at our goodness, until that is all we have left, is to sin. 

  Both of those cases speak of desire that is based upon human or worldly feelings and emotions; the will of that which is limited to this life, this world, and this fleshly body: all of which is temporary and is fixed within the measure of time. The desire that is spoken of when speaking of God, is eternal; which in the eternal, it becomes fixed because God does not change, nor does He say oops! In other words, if you are His, you are not going to be let go of, period! 

  Now, as to what might be taking place within these next five days; we are going to be taken in one of two very different directions: and when I say we, I am speaking of all of us, the entire world. I am totally fine in either case, because I know that everything is in God's hands: God is on the Throne of Heaven, and nothing is gong to happen that is not within His eternal plan; absolutely nothing, period! As much as I hate to see evil prevail, it will only be for a season; but if God so chooses, we might be seeing something of a little more goodness, if that is even humanly possible at this point in time. 

  While all eyes are on the way the world goes, we need to keep our eyes on Him that holds us, because He is never letting us go, period...

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of  God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)