How can I hold fast my profession of faith when my heart is broken?

Here's the Precious Prodigal post for July 30, 2014: How can I hold fast my profession of faith when my heart is broken? #justholdon Please "Share" using this "ShortLink" = http://bit.ly/1o5

Hebrews 10:23: "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering…"

Life is a journey, and much of that journey is through the wilderness of heartbreak, disappointment and loss. If we’re going to survive that wilderness, there are some things we’ll need to lay aside, and I’ve been writing about them for several days. Not only are there some things we need to lay aside, but also some things we need to hold fast. One of them is our profession of faith.

It seems logical that we Christians would run not walk to God when our world falls apart, but that isn’t always what happens. That’s especially true for those of us who love a prodigal. There are several reasons for that, not the least of which is that trouble sometimes makes us bitter rather than better. And we set ourselves up for that with unreasonable expectations. What do I mean by that?

If someone in our family has cancer, loses a job or has an accident, our friends, our family and our church usually offer support. However, when our kids begin to act out, those same people often disappear as though our family problems might be contagious. While I wish it were different, the sad truth is that God’s army continues to be the only army in the world that shoots its wounded.

Hurt by the assumptions they make, we may distance ourselves from all of them. If we’re honest, however, we have to admit that our kids and other people aren’t the only ones we had expectations about. Somewhere along the line, we convinced ourselves that if we taught our kids right, took them to church, even put them in a Christian school that they would…that they would what? Turn out “right?”

Without realizing it, we have put all those “things” we did about training our kids, being a good husband or wife, being a “good” Christian on one side of the scale and expected that God “owed” us a godly family in return. But you see, God doesn’t “owe” us anything. Indeed, what basis do we have for assuming that? If nothing else, looking at the children of godly parents in the Bible would show us there are no guarantees.

We expect certain things from our friends and family, from our church, and yes…even from our God. And we usually don’t even realize we’ve put a price tag on doing the right thing with our expectations. When those expectations aren’t met, it becomes a real challenge to “hold fast the profession of our faith.” (Heb 10:23)

However, that’s exactly what we need to do, and we need to do it “without wavering.” The way to do that is found in the rest of our text verse, “for he is faithful who has promised.” The God who promised never to leave you nor forsake you is faithful. (Deut 31:6; Heb 13:5) That same God will “hold your right hand and help you.” (Isaiah 41:13)

I don’t claim to understand why our kids, our spouses and others we love break our hearts. And I may never comprehend how our prodigals can accomplish God’s purpose for their lives through their disobedience. However, I do know God has a plan for their lives and for our own, and both His will and His purpose will be accomplished. So I can choose to “hold fast my profession of faith,” not in spite of the people who have hurt me, but because of the faithfulness of the One who has promised.

Challenge for Today: Can you, just for today, choose to believe God is faithful and hold fast your profession of faith?