Don’t Lose Heart!
“Don’t grow weary and lose heart.”
Hebrews 12:3 (NIV)
My sacred echo this week has been “don’t lose heart.” Those words have been repeatedly woven into my life as I’ve prepared to teach a women’s Bible study from Hebrews 12; listened to Stephen Curtis Chapman’s song Don’t Lose Heart on the radio; and heard Dr. Dan Doriani’s evening sermon Practical Theology at church last night.
It’s so easy to grow weary and lose heart when we watch the evening news; scroll through social media; buy groceries and deal with inflation and stretched budgets; or consider the dismal state of our current national political chaos. Losing heart means losing courage. Discouragement is usually triggered by fear, fatigue, frustration, failure and loss of focus (1 Kings 19).
So how can we keep from growing weary and losing heart? Fortunately, God has given us several practical ways to be strengthened and encouraged by his grace. Scripture and prayer are certainly two tools we can use, but God has also gifted his people with great hymns of the faith. One of those hymns is How Firm a Foundation, a beautiful hymn written about 275 years ago by an anonymous author who was suffering trials and sorrow.
The hymn’s first stanza asks an important question: What more can God say than what he has already said? Jesus is God’s final Word of redemption and revelation (Hebrews 1:4). God has also given us his holy Word, the Bible. Scripture’s canon is closed and there is nothing else to be revealed. The Bible doesn’t tell us all we want to know, but it does tell us all we need to know for our salvation, sanctification, and edification. We have a firm foundation!
How firm a foundation you saints of the Lord
Is laid for your faith in his excellent Word
What more can he say than to you he has said
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
“I am with you is the central promise of the Bible,” Dr. David Powlison writes in his wonderful book God’s Grace in Your Suffering. How Firm a Foundation’s stanzas 2-6 reinforce this wonderful promise. In these stanzas, God speaks to us and repeatedly reminds us that He is with us. Stanza two uses Isaiah 41:10 as its original source.
“Fear not, I am with you O be not dismayed
For I am your God and will still give you aid
I’ll strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand
Upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand.”
This stanza includes seven wonderful promises that speak to the fear and dismay tht usually accompany our suffering, trials, and hardships. God promises:
I am with you
I am your God
I will strengthen you
I will help you
I will cause you to stand
I will still give you aid
I will uphold you with my righteous omnipotent hand
Stanza 3 uses the words from Isaiah 43:2 and describes some of the trials and hardships we may face.
When through the deep waters I call you to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
For I will be with you, your troubles to bless,
And sanctify to you your deepest distress.
The Apostle Peter’s words (1 Peter 1:6-9) are recalled from his pastoral letter to suffering, discouraged, and persecuted Christians in Stanza 3:
When through fiery trials your pathway shall be
My grace, all sufficient shall be your supply;
The flame shall not hurt you I only design
Your dross to consume and your gold to refine.
Stanza 5 reminds us of the the prophet Isaiah’s words found in Isaiah 46:4
“E’en down to old age all my people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn
Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne.
The sixth and final stanza recall Jesus’ words from Matthew 28:20 “I am with you always.” The hymn’s author repeats the words “no,” “not,” and “never” seven times to reinfornce God’s promise to never leave or forsake us.
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose
I will not, I will not desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.
Wherever we are today, whatever circumstances or suffering we are facing, let’s take heart and be encouraged. Our God is with us. He will never leave or forsake us. Those who are united to Christ have a firm foundation and a rich heritage.
Don’t grow weary and lose heart!