Inheriting God's Promises

"And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, ¹² that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises."

Hebrews 6:11-12

Abraham and many others in scripture are examples of those who by faith and patience inherited the sure promises of God.  God promised He would make of Abraham a great nation, yet he and his wife continued to be childless for decades.  They did what they could, but their efforts were without success.  The promise was real yet God's timing was long, and thus patient endurance with faith was the means of seeing God's word amazingly, miraculously fulfilled.  Through Abraham and his seed all nations of the earth have been blessed.

God has not given the blessing of children to all, yet all of God's immutable promises are good blessings and glorious.  Jesus gives rest for weary souls, forgiveness to those who repent, joy and perfect peace to those who trust in Christ and fruitfulness for all who abide in Him.  At the end of our lives on earth all Christians will experience eternity with God in heaven, an everlasting glorious union where the troubles and toil of this life will fade without memory.  It is required of stewards they be faithful, and while our Master tarries there is much He would have us do.  It is foolish to imagine our efforts are pointless when God promises to bring the increase.  We remain on this planet not only to do God's work, but so He can do a marvelous work to refine us.  Consider this quote from Charles Jefferson concerning pastoral ministry which can relate to all believers who know Christ as LORD:

"The shepherd grows in patience.  As long as he lives, his work makes heavy demands on his powers of endurance, but they respond to the call.  The work of a shepherd is full of interruptions, vexations, and disappointments, but these try his soul and refine it.  The precipitate hastiness of the earlier years gives way to calm deliberativeness, and the feverish irritability of youth is replaced by the cool strength of forbearance.  In working with human nature a man gets something of the patience of a mother.  He is not daunted by a score of failures.  He does not surrender to apparent defeat.  If doing a thing nineteen times is not sufficient, he is willing to do it the twentieth time.

The grace of humility is watered and unfolded by the shepherd's toil...The shepherd, working with individuals, faces failure, again and again.  As a guide he is rejected; his counsel is despised.  As a physician he is baffled; the diseases of the soul will not yield.  As a saviour he is defeated; he cannot bring back a sheep that is lost.   There is always a joy in his heart over what he achieves, but there is also always a heaviness because of what he fails to do.  'Sorrowing, yet always rejoicing'--this is a fit description of a shepherd's life.  He always is being thrown back on God.  While some men dream of speedy ending of evils, and other men trust jauntily to experiments in legislation, he knows the power of sin and realities that there is no help for the world this side of God.  His experience in fighting evil face to face brings him into the dust.  Moreover, his work is never done...After he has done a thousand things, he can think of a thousand other things still to do.  After he has done his best, he feels like confessing himself an unprofitable servant.  The shepherd's work is never done." (Jefferson, Charles Edward. The Minister as Shepherd: the Privileges and Responsibilities of Pastoral Leadership. CLC Publications, 2006. pages 136-137)

The confidence of Paul was not in the faithfulness in the people of the church of Philippi but in the faithfulness of God to work in and through them as partakers of the Gospel.  He wrote in Philippians 1:3-6, "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, ⁴ always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, ⁵ for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶ being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ..."  Paul continued to pray for his brothers and sisters in Christ because all his confidence was in God who would bring them to completion.  Trusting people to be faithful will always expose our confidence as misplaced.  What assurance of hope we have in God, and through faith and patience in Him we will inherit the promises.