Inheriting the Promise (2)

That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. - Hebrews 6:12

It is not only through faith that we inherit the promise but through faith and patience. Patience here means long-suffering. To be patient in Christ means suffering for long in the will of God. If faith does it alone, the Bible would have said so. Many have Faith, but the promise is not a reality in their lives because they give up too soon. Many can stand for a while, but can you stand with God when it looks as if nothing is happening? God wants us to mature through what we go through. That is how to develop spiritual muscles. Yet there are many dejected Christians because they do not know the place of patience before the promise manifests. Many confess but, in few years, the same person is jumping around compromising his stand for the truth. Following God is not a guess work we must believe him in good and bad times. Anybody can have possessions by inheritance from their father, but I am talking here about enduring wealth that comes as a result of standing on God's promises.

Anybody can have anything but that does not make him a man of faith. They can have stuff by inheritance. You cannot take me through a road you have not gone. This is the reason that God allowed Moses to go through the wilderness. He could have stopped him from the mistake of killing the Egyptian. A boy that was born with silver spoon in his mouth, becoming a cattle rearer, serving Jethro, unlearning for 40 years what he learnt under Pharaoh for 40 years.

At 40 years of age, he thought he was ready to be a deliverer but by the time he went through the hot sun of the wilderness for 40 years, at 80 years old, he was ready for God's great plan of deliverance. God said he was now ready, but he said he was not ready again. Moses never complained when the people were complaining because 40 years of wilderness journey as a shepherd had matured him. He had learnt that true life is not lived by comfort but by conviction and sacrifice.