Hold on to Jesus!

Today’s Reading:  Matthew 24:1-35

Wow, I don’t know about you, but this was a lot to comprehend.  So many things in these 35 verses, but after reading through them quite a few times one thing became abundantly clear… ‘hold on to Jesus’.  Though Jesus never spoke those exact words, as I read I continued to feel the whisper of the Holy Spirit saying…just hold on to Jesus!

In verse 4 Jesus says to ‘watch out that no one deceives you’.  I find it interesting that Jesus tells them this before he gives them any examples of what is to come.  It seems to me that he is saying once again, just trust me---hold on to me and I will lead you through these things.  Within the text of all this Jesus is constantly reassuring us that it will be alright.  By Jesus saying ‘see to it that you are not alarmed’, ‘such things must happen’, ‘he that stands firm to the end will be saved’, ‘for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened’, ‘see, I have told you ahead of time’, and Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away’ I think Jesus is constantly reminding us that we are his children, we are the ‘ ‘elect’ that he is referring to and that He is sufficient---we just have to hold on!

Now, will it be easy----no way!  He tells us that too when he says that ‘many will turn away from the faith and betray and hate each other’ and that even the elect may be deceived.  Honestly, we just think times are tough now, while I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, I have to say that I believe, according to scripture, that these times will only continue to worsen.  All the more reason to put our complete trust in Jesus Christ---what a loving Father we have to be so truthful with us about what the future holds.  He tells us these things because he loves us and he wants us to be prepared for what is to come.  Don’t we do everything in our power to prepare our children for what we know they will encounter?  What if they never listened to us?  As parents, how does it make us feel when our children don’t listen to us when we are only trying to help them, trying to save them from future mistakes?  Well I think Jesus is doing this same thing except on a much larger scale..our life.  It will be hard to hold on to our faith during these difficult times, but isn’t it completely worth it.  What is our other choice?  There is only one alternative and I want no part of it.  Jesus died so that I may live---I owe him my life and with everything in me I am giving it to him daily. 

Just hold on to Jesus!