Patterns

             So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. (Hebrews 10:34-35)

The context of this passage is that the recipients of the letter had been through tough times and had stood shoulder to shoulder or back to back with others who had. They had done so because they believed that no matter what, God held better in store for them. So since they had been through all they went through before, in this current crisis or in some future crisis, they needed to have the confidence the previous crises taught them to have. In other words, they needed to know their stories and to glory in their sufferings. Then, they needed to remember that the present sufferings fit the same pattern.

This morning, a discussion with someone on Facebook brought to mind my “put it on the table” idea and perhaps this is a case when we need to put things on that table. Does the current situation look anything like the old? If so, then what from the old can help us survive the current - if only just the fact that we persevered and survived?

If we can hold on to the pattern or learn from the pattern, then we will gain confidence. We may not be rewarded with fame or fortune, but we’ll gain the reward of wisdom and character. We’ll know how to cope. In fact, this is the reason I sometimes practice emergency procedures for a rain shower. It’s to build the pattern to follow when the storms of life really hit. We’ll also gain God, but let’s take the magic out of this idea. It’s not that God will suddenly manifest Himself or show up. It’s more that we will learn to recognize Him better when He’s working in the background. This is the alternative to following Elijah’s example of doing so well against the priests of Baal and standing up to King Ahab, then falling apart when Queen Jezebel threatened him.