Hebrews 10:38 – ““But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.”
Don't be a slacker, but rather be followers (or imitators) of people who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.
Hebrews 10:35 – “Don't cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of courage to stay the course, so that after you've done the will of God you may receive the promise.”
In order to receive what God has promised.... don't lose your confidence in God! You can have a mess all around you… but stay confident that God is great at fixing messes. If God could reach out of heaven, and raise a dead man out of a grave, and bring him up to heaven, then he's got the ability to raise me up. It doesn't matter what it looks like, what you say, or what your finances are saying, whatever the circumstances, just say: God can lift me up, and help me finish the course! He can do it for you too!
Joseph was in the lowest prison of Egypt, falsely accused of attempted rape, rotting away in a prison, but God was able to reach into the prison, lift him up, and stick him on a throne. That's the God we serve! He can do it! If He can do it for Joseph, and Daniel, and men like that, then He can do it for you. He's not a different God - but don't let go of being confident in God. Don't be confident in yourself, or your friends; be confident in God! God is faithful.
Don't lose your confidence; hang in and stay true, because after you've done what God says to do - that's when you get the promises. You've got to remain bold, and confident in God, and stay on course, doing what God said to do - then God brings you through.
I've seen this over and over - people who just stuck the course, and I couldn't believe it. Right when they're about to break through, they just gave up, and went off track! Oh, my heart broke for them! Don't be a quitter! Don't give up! Stay the course!
1 Samuel 30 - David was in Ziklag, a city that was given to him. We found that certain lessons in David's life were associated with cities. Now here is a major challenge that David faces. It's the challenge where has he got courage to continue, when his whole world is falling apart. This is not for just young people; this is also for any one of us, who right now may be facing your life being overwhelmed.
1 Samuel 30:1-6 – “Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag, and burned it with fire, and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great. They did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way.
David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive. David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive. And David was great distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and daughters.”
David is in a crisis. He had no warning that a crisis was about to overtake him - absolutely no warning. He had gone out on a raiding party, as he had always done. The soldiers, about 600 of them went out. They were all armed, and ready to go and conquer some areas of land, and when they went away, they left the city behind them. They left the city of Ziklag, and in that city they had their wives, their children, their finances, their TV sets, their computers… everything that people have.