Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;).
— Hebrews 10:23
What do you want God to accomplish through you in this life? What are the dreams you think about every night when your head hits the pillow, or every day when no one else is around? Do you daydream about what you’d like to become or do in the years that lie ahead? Have you considered the possibility that these daydreams may in fact be the will of God for your life — dreams He placed deep down inside your spirit that are starting to be awakened? Is it possible that this is the timing for God’s dream for your life to be ignited in your soul?
Dreams are powerful. They usually seem impossible at first, but those who dare to do the impossible are the ones who eventually see the impossible come to pass in their lives. Everything great starts as a dream. Consider the example of Thomas Edison, who worked so long and furiously to realize his dream of the light bulb. Although Edison failed literally thousands of times in the earliest pursuits of his dream, he learned from every failure and pushed forward. Finally, his dream came to pass, and it changed the course of human history.
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What if this brilliant man had given up and given in to discouragement? I’m sure someone else along the way would have invented the light bulb, but Edison wouldn’t have had the great honor of being a part of it.
There are myriads of Bible examples of individuals who had a dream. For instance, let’s consider the dream God gave Abraham — called the father of our faith — regarding a new land and a new people. When God first spoke to him about the son He would give him, Abraham and his wife had long been infertile and unable to conceive a child. The thought of having a baby probably seemed like an unattainable fantasy to them. They could have asked themselves, Is this really the plan of God for our lives, or is this a hallucination?
God also promised Abraham a new land but didn’t tell him where it was located. In their efforts to find that land, Abraham and Sarah were stricken with colossal challenges, problematic circumstances, and horrible internal family problems. First, Abraham’s father died. Then they lost their nephew Lot to Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham also took Hagar as a second wife, producing a son that didn’t belong to Sarah and a great deal of jealousy and strife. In addition, Abraham and Sarah experienced a terrible famine in their promised territory that forced them to leave due to a lack of food. Traveling to Egypt in search for food, they soon found themselves evicted from that land as well.
At any moment, it would have been so easy for Abraham and Sarah to say, “Enough is enough! Pack it up — we’re going back home to the city of Ur!” But instead of giving in to defeat and discouragement, they held tightly to the dreams God had put in their hearts and kept pursuing those dreams until they had witnessed their fulfillment.
If you want to see the dream God has given you fulfilled in your life, it is imperative that you have this same attitude. As Hebrews 10:23 says, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;).”
I want you to particularly notice the phrase “hold fast.” Abraham and Sarah “held fast” to their dream, and that is what you must do as well. The phrase “hold fast” is taken from the Greek word katecho, which is a compound of the two words kata and echo. The first word, kata, carries the idea of something that comes downward.
You could say the word kata carries the force of something that comes down so hard and so heavily, it is overpowering and dominating to the point of being subjugating. When this force arrives on the scene, it conquers, subdues, and immediately begins expressing its overwhelming, influencing power.
The second part of the word katecho is the word echo, which simply means I have and carries the notion of possession. This is the picture of someone who has sought and searched for one particular thing his entire life. After years of seeking and searching, he finally finds the object of his dreams. Joyfully he rushes forward to seize it and hold it tight. He wraps his arms around that object, making it his very own. Finally, he can say, “I have it! At long last it is mine!”
When kata and echo are compounded into the word katecho, it literally means to embrace something tightly. However, because of the word kata, we know that this is the image of someone who finds the object of his dreams and then holds it down — taking control of it, dominating it — even sitting on it so it doesn’t slip away!
The phrase “hold fast” is so strong that it can actually be translated to suppress. It is used this exact way in Romans 1:18, where Paul tells us about ungodly men “…who hold [or suppress] the truth in unrighteousness.” In other words, because these ungodly men don’t like the truth, they “sit on it” or “put a lid on it” in an effort to keep others from hearing the truth and getting set free. But in Hebrews 10:23, this same idea is used positively to describe you sitting on your word from God and refusing to let it slip out and get away from you!
This is the attitude you must have if you want to see your God-given dream come to pass. You have to wrap your arms around that word from God and never stop believing and pursuing your dream until it comes to pass. If you’ll katecho your dream, it won’t be able to get away from you, nor will anyone else be able to take it away from you!
The word katecho in Hebrews 10:23 could be interpreted this way:
“And let us hold fast to our confession, tightly wrapping our arms around it and embracing it with all our might, rejecting all attempts of anyone who tries to steal it from us.…”
When you finally discover God’s will for your life — when His plan finally begins to awaken in your heart and you know exactly what you are to do — hold fast to that dream. Tightly embrace what God has shown you. Seize it — wrap your arms of faith around it. Hold it down, and hold it tight!
Whenever you are tempted to get discouraged, give up, and release your dream, remember Abraham and Sarah. Although it took them awhile to receive their dream of a son, and although they had to overcome titanic hurdles along the way, they refused to let go of that dream and eventually saw it come to pass. In the end, they discovered that their dream was not a hallucination; it really was a word from God!
If you’ll hold tight and refuse to let go of YOUR dream, it will just be a matter of time until you see it come to pass! Place all your weight on top of that dream so that NOTHING can steal it away from you!
My Prayer for Today
Lord, I am well aware that events will occur in life that will tempt me to release the dream You put in my heart. So right now I ask You to fill me with the courage I need to refuse to let go of my dream. Even though my mind and the circumstances around me may send signals that the dream will never come to pass, I know that You are faithful to what You have promised. Help me wrap my arms of faith around Your promises and never let go until I see them come into manifestation!
I pray this in Jesus’ name!
My Confession for Today
I boldly declare that my word from God will come to pass! It may take a little while for it to happen, but I will firmly hang on to the promise God has given me. And because I refuse to let the dream slip from my heart, I stand by faith and declare that it is only a matter of time until I see the manifestation of what I’m believing God for!
I declare this by faith in Jesus’ name!
Questions to Answer
1. What can you learn about faith by looking at the lives of Abraham and Sarah?
2. In what ways does your own walk of faith compare with Abraham and Sarah’s walk of faith?
3. Can you think of a time in your past when you claimed a promise, hung on to it in the face of opposition, and later saw that promise come to pass? What was the blessing you received by faith?