Hi everyone! My name is Jon, and I am on staff with the National School Project. I work with Christian clubs in Riverside and San Bernardino County, California.
Serving the Lord is never an easy thing. It is difficult to be faithful in our work, in our personal lives, and even in serving the Lord. I struggle with faithfulness every day, and I imagine that you do too. Do we love people completely? Do we read our Bibles daily or consistently share our faith with our whole heart? Even the greatest pastors, teachers, evangelists, and prophets from the Bible fell short at times.
...But Jesus never fell short. He has been faithful from the beginning!
Today’s devotional is about the faithfulness of Jesus, taken from the book of Hebrews. Hebrews is addressed to early Christians from a Jewish background, emphasizing that Jesus is both the Messiah and High Priest that Moses wrote about. The people of Israel viewed Moses as a great prophet and example, but Jesus is even greater than Moses!
Look at Hebrews 3:1-2:
"Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house."
Notice how the author draws attention to two important titles of Jesus: Apostle and High Priest. These titles came with a level of responsibility, authority and faithfulness.
Apostle means “sent one.” Jesus came down from Heaven and was sent by God to deliver a message of salvation.
As High Priest, Jesus advocates and prays for us to the Father. There were many priests in the old testament who would offer sacrifices for the sins of the people, but Jesus is our one true high priest today! Because of Jesus’ faithful service, we now have direct access to God and the assurance of peace.
This level of faithfulness was even greater than that of Moses, the greatest prophet of the Old Testament. Moses was noted as being faithful with God’s house, but even he fell short. He once made a significant mistake by choosing to rely on his own insight to accomplish God’s mission instead of trusting in God’s very specific instructions (Numbers 20:10-13). In contrast, Jesus is greater because he always does the Father’s will. He leads God’s people perfectly. Jesus was faithful unto death. He overcame sin and died on the cross for our sins. He gave us the Holy Spirit to empower us to be like Him.
So, how can we apply this passage to our lives? We need to be faithful like Jesus.
Faithfulness never starts out big. Being faithful always starts out small, and what you have done in the past is not what is important. What is important is that you stay faithful today and move forward. It is because of Jesus that we can do these things.
Here are a few ways that we can be faithful this week. We need to...
Again, it’s not how we start that matters, but how we finish.
Moses was around eighty years old when the Lord got a hold of his life. It doesn't matter how young or old you are; God wants to use you today and tomorrow and for the rest of your life! Be faithful today and the Lord will do the rest. Surrender your life to Jesus, do your best to imitate his example of faithfulness, and he will help you to remain faithful!