What shakes you? Peers? Pandemics? Politics? Perhaps your family has moved. Maybe you’ve lost someone close to you. Your school situation may have changed. When the world around us shakes, how does Jesus make it possible for His followers to be unshakable?
In Hebrews 11, this New Testament author describes the stories of many people who put their faith in God. The next chapter, Hebrews 12, begins by calling all these people “a large cloud of witnesses†whose testimonies cheer us on and encourage us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the One who makes our faith perfect. From Abel to Rahab, we read about men and women whose lives were shaken, and yet they stood firm in Christ and acted in faith, knowing that God is greater than anything.
In the Old Testament, when Moses was about to receive the ten commandments on Mount Sinai, the people saw lightning and smoke as the Lord descended in fire. The mountain trembled—and the people with it (Exodus 19:16-18). Moses was the only one who was allowed to approach God, so everyone else remained at a distance. The people could not stand before a sinless and holy God. Because they couldn’t follow His good ways, priests had to continually make sacrifices for their own sins and the sins of the people (Hebrews 7:27).
But when God sent His Son as the perfect sacrifice for all sin, He established a new and better covenant (Hebrews 8). When Jesus let Himself be put to death, the very earth shook (Matthew 27:50-54). And when He rose from the dead, Jesus revealed that His sacrifice was enough to cover all our sins and give us access to a kingdom that cannot be shaken. If we’ve responded to God’s love by putting our trust in Jesus—relying on His once-and-for-all sacrifice—we belong to God and are citizens in His kingdom.
Because His love for us is unshakable, God uses all the trials we endure in this life for His good purposes, and through it all, His Holy Spirit helps us reflect Christ and become more like Him. Our faith’s goal is our salvation—and that is unshakable because its foundation is on Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:3-9). No matter what we face here in this broken world, our future with Christ is set and will never be shaken. • Savannah Coleman
• When life is shaky, how can relying on Jesus and leaning on the church help you feel steady?
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe. Hebrews 12:28 (CSB)
Read Verses:
John 6:28-58
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