Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. 33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34 You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. 35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

Following on from the severe warning we read yesterday, our writer reminds his readers of better days in the past, when they showed the fruit of genuine faith in their costly faithfulness to Christ and His church. Those were better days: days when the understood that they had ”better…possessions” in Jesus.

The hymn writer asked himself: ‘Where is the blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord?’

Sometimes we may need to remind ourselves (or be reminded) of how it was with us in the earliest days of our Christian experience. If we can ‘get back to where we once belonged’ we surely will keep going, and not throw our true and lasting treasure away – even though, at times, we may be tempted to do so. The spiritual battle is real and fierce, and we have a ruthless enemy. He will steal precious things from us if he can. We need to always be alert, continually standing guard, living in prayer and nourishing our souls with God’s Word

PRAYER: Lord, renew in me my first love, and help me love you more and more.

THOUGHT:

‘Lord, it is my chief complaint
that my love is weak and faint;
yet I love thee, and adore;
O for grace to love thee more!‘ William Cowper (from the hymn: ‘Hark my soul it is the Lord’).