JESUS HOPE

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


". . .Jesus. . .the Author and Finisher of our faith. . ." Hebrews l2:2


We know that we are not our own when we recognize fully that Jesus owns our start and conclusion.


Jesus has gone to the cross, not simply to make life happy for us. Not just to help us with our problems. He has gone to the cross in order to purchase our existences.


We begin life thinking that we have the right to our ourselves. We act that out. We purchase and plan, we set our goals, we brag on how much we have accomplished, we tell others what we are going to do and where we are going to go.


We live each day of given breath as if we have manufactured our own beings.


This is the daily reenactment of Eden's folly. It is playing Adam and Eve all over again. We hear the enticing lure of the snake and go for it. We bite into the forbidden fruit.


We claim that we know our courtesies, one of them acting out humility. Yet we are the proud of the proud for we claim our own lives. This is utter nonsense. The lungs in our chests are gifts from the Father of lights. The air moving through lungs is provided from without. The brain cells which perk in out heads were not molded by our own egos.


We owe everything to the "outside." Everything. Therefore, to claim to own anything is to speak as a fool. However, mortals live this out day in and day out. Such hubris.


When we are strapped to the cross, however, we begin to see truth. We come into reality as heaven sees reality. And in that is the unspeakable blessing--all due to the cross bearing.


We do not start and finish anything. God is in charge of our conception and points to our exit.


For the children of grace, Jesus has become their Alpha and Omega, the Author and Finisher of their faith. By an act of faith, one acknowledges in humility that there is Someone other than self in charge of everything. In that act of faith, one comes into wisdom and so discards the foolish haughtiness of the warped-thinking human creature.


Knowing that Jesus, the victorious One, is in control of your today and tomorrow, you then can relax. There is a rest for the people of God; it begins with the realization that Jesus, the blessed Savior, is more than adequate for your cross journey. Then let Him lead you. Do not look one second ahead in fretting. Let Jesus set the race. Let Jesus guide you to the finish for He is the Finish.


You now may lay yourself down to sleep. You now may get up to cross carry. You now may let go of all that is entwining itself to snare you. You now may sing joyfully of the praises to your God. You now may envision the joy that has been set before you. You now may contemplate residing at the throne base where God seated. You now may bask in the grace available to you.


Jesus--the start and completion of your all. There is no wiser move that can be made than to invite this Jesus to be Himself in your soul--the Author and Finisher of your faith.