1 John 2:24–25: “Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.”

August 18th, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

“Let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning.” John was a man who understood the weight of this seemingly simple instruction. He was perhaps 90 years old when he wrote this, so he was speaking from about 70 years of experience. John’s faith had endured much, including Roman imprisonment on the “hard rock” island called Patmos, a few miles off the southwestern shore of Asia Minor. Yet even banishment to a quarry island didn’t seem to weaken John’s faith one bit. And the reason it didn’t was because John had been Jesus Christ’s discple for 3.5 years. He had walked with, talked to, listened to, eaten with, and touched Jesus Christ. When John faced difficulties, it was the words of the Savior that he fell back on over and over again.

Basically John is saying here, “When confusion reigns around you in this fast-changing world, stick with the words of Jesus.” He is pointing to the good news and truths of Jesus that never change. If we simply hang onto and live in the fundamentals we learned when we first came to Jesus Christ, then we are in fact walking in eternal life right now. So we must ask ourselves, “How well do we know the promises of Jesus in the Scriptures?” Do we know them well enough to fall back on them when the storms of life rage and the way ahead is unclear? Will we step out into the storm because we are confident of God’s promises to us?

In a sermon, Juan Carlos Ortiz told of a conversation he had with a circus trapeze artist who said that the net beneath them wasn’t only there to help them survive a fall but also to help them not fall at all. He said:

The net also keeps us from falling. Imagine there is no net. We would be so nervous that we would be more likely to miss and fall. If there was no net, we would not dare to do some of the things we do. But because there’s a net, we dare to make two turns, and once I made three turns—thanks to the net!¹

The confidence we have in God’s promises should give us the courage we need to step out and serve Him, even when it looks scary. No matter how uncertain the times are, God’s net will hold!

“LORD, we trust that Your loving arms will catch us if we start to fall today just as You promised.”

¹Stephen Lawson, Holman Old Testament Commentary: Psalms 76–150 (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006).