Good Morning 07-20

"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."
- Revelation 2:10

"Be thou faithful." This is the divine challenge that comes to each individual child of God. God is faithful; that is the record of the Scriptures; that is the experience of god's saints. As God is faithful, so should we be. It means laying hold by faith on the treasures of God's grace in Christ and thereafter to hold fast and keep these treasures over against all temptations to barter them away for the gaudy things of earth. It also means keeping faith with God, being true to Him, keeping the pledges we made in Baptism and confirmation and at other times.

"Unto death." That means we are to be faithful not only up to the time of our death, but we are to be faithful even if it costs us our life, faithful to the point of suffering death for Christ and His Gospel, as did the Apostles and many Christian martyrs.

"A crown of life" is promised to each one that is faithful to the end. Yet it is promised not as a reward of merit, but as a gift of grace. "I will give thee a crown." It is only the grace of God in Christ that bestows the gift of heavenly life upon the believer who endures unto the end. For such endurance God supplies grace and strength in His Word and Sacraments.

Christian friends, let us faithfully use these means of divine grace. Then, we, too, shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

     I would not falter nor retire;
     For grace to do Your will I ask;
     With heart aflame and zeal undimmed,
     LORD, make me faithful to my task.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - Better than counting your years, is to make your years count.