… Through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. | ||
| 1 Peter 1:5 | ||
| A young man who was being hazed by a college fraternity was taken to a secluded spot where he was told to hold on to a knot at the end of a greased rope as his fraternity brothers lowered him into a dark well. Thinking they would pull him up after a few minutes, he was terrified to see them tie their end of the rope to the bar across the top of the well, leaving him suspended in mid-air. ‘This can’t be!’ he thought as he called for help. But none came. As he approached the 15-minute mark, his arms aching unbelievably and his shoulders feeling as though they were on fire, he started to cry. Finally, after about 25 tortuous minutes, able to hang on no longer, he let go — and fell 2 inches — just as his fraternity brothers had calculated. Isn’t that just like us? ‘Where are You, God? I don’t know if I’m going to make it, we cry. We fret and blubber and scream until finally we let go. And guess what we find? We discover that our Solid Rock, Jesus Christ, was there all along. A bunch of us have burning shoulders and aching arms for absolutely no reason. We’re trying to hang on through our own efforts, by our own spirituality. We get disgusted with ourselves and worried we’re not going to make it. But if we would just let go of the rope and rest in what Jesus did on the Cross of Calvary, we would realize it’s not our puny efforts which will see us through, but the power of God. This is what Peter is telling the believers who no doubt were wondering whether, when the temperature rose and persecution came down, they would be able to hang in there. ‘I want you to know something,’ Peter said. ‘You have an inheritance waiting for you which can’t be taken from you. You are kept by the power of God who is committed to see you through. And all that remains for you to do is believe.’ | ||
