Don't Shrink Back
We live in an urgent hour. The world around us shifts and spins, circumstances press in from every side, and weariness threatens to overtake even the most faithful among us. In times like these, we face a critical choice: will we live by faith and press forward, or will we shrink back?
The book of Hebrews speaks directly into this tension. Written to believers who had endured persecution, public shame, imprisonment, and loss of property, the letter addresses a community that hadn't abandoned their faith under pressure—but now faced something perhaps more dangerous than persecution itself: weariness.
The Greater Danger
Persecution can be endured. It may even cost us everything, but it's a finite trial. The greater danger—the Trojan horse to our faith—is growing tired over time. It's the slow fade, the gradual disconnection, the quiet giving up that happens not in a moment of crisis but through accumulated disappointment and delayed promises.
Hebrews 10:35-36 cuts to the heart of this struggle: "Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised."
Notice the progression: confidence leads to endurance, endurance leads to doing God's will, and doing God's will leads to receiving the promise. But here's the key insight—endurance itself is God's will. It's not merely a means to an end; it's part of the journey God has ordained.
Confidence and Risk
The confidence spoken of here isn't self-assurance or positive thinking. It's the willingness to undertake activities that involve risk and danger for the sake of the Kingdom. It's the boldness that marked the early church when observers said of Peter and John, "They realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, but they had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13).
True biblical confidence takes risks. It moves to unfamiliar places, speaks truth when it's uncomfortable, and stands firm when everything around us says to retreat. This kind of confidence doesn't originate in our own abilities—it flows from knowing who God is and trusting His character completely.
We need a fresh baptism of this kind of boldness. The world isn't waiting for another program or political solution. It's waiting for people filled with the Holy Spirit who will step into their moment with grace, truth, love, and righteousness.
Endurance: More Than Gritting Your Teeth
Endurance isn't about white-knuckling our way through difficulty. It's not merely stubborn persistence. Rather, endurance is an expression of confidence that God will keep His promises.
When we endure, we're declaring with our lives: "I know God is not a man that He should lie. I know He keeps His word to a thousand generations. Even if I don't see the fulfillment in my lifetime, it will happen—in my children's lifetime, or my children's children's."
This is why Jesus said, "Only the one who endures until the end is saved" (Matthew 24:13). Endurance reveals genuine faith. It's the proof that our confidence isn't just mental assent but a living trust that shapes how we actually live.
The Urgent Hour
Like the prophet Habakkuk, who watched enemy armies surround his nation, we live in an urgent time. Habakkuk cried out with questions we've all asked: "Why isn't God intervening? Why does evil seem to prosper? Why the delay?"
God's answer wasn't to stop the invasion or remove the hardship. Instead, He declared: "The just shall live by faith" (Habakkuk 2:4).
In other words, the righteous don't step away from God during uncertainty—they press into Him. They hold on when their world spins out of control. They remain faithful because they're full of faith.
Two Responses to Pressure
When pressure mounts, we have only two options: we can live by faith and not shrink back, or we can shrink back. There's no neutral ground. Apathy is shrinking back. Disengagement is shrinking back.
The alternative is to step up and meet the moment. People's lives hang in the balance right now. Families are at stake. Souls are in peril. The fabric of society teeters. This isn't a time to coast or chill or let off in the spirit. This is the moment for which we've been prepared.
Habakkuk's Declaration
After wrestling with God and facing the reality of impending judgment, Habakkuk made one of Scripture's most powerful declarations of faith:
"Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation" (Habakkuk 3:17-18).
This is faith that endures. It rejoices not because circumstances are favorable, but because God is good. It praises not on account of how everything panned out, but on account of who God is.
Whether this past year was your breakout season or possibly the worst year of your life, you have the same opportunity: to yet praise the Lord. To yet rejoice in the God of your salvation.
You Are Not Those Who Shrink Back
Here's the prophetic word for this season: You will not shrink back. Not as a command to try harder, but as a declaration of identity. You are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls (Hebrews 10:39).
Why? Because Christ never shrank back. Even at the moment of greatest pressure, when He could have called legions of angels, when He could have stepped down from the cross, Jesus endured. And the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.
You are a new creation. The old has passed away; the new has come. You died in the waters of baptism and were raised to new life. That's not just theology—it's your identity. You are not a person who quits. You are not someone who gives up. That's not who you are in Christ.
Moving Forward
So whatever 2026 holds—and none of us knows—move forward with this confidence: God has infused you with resurrection power. His life flows through you. And by that power, you will not shrink back.
You won't stop praying. You won't stop worshiping. You won't stop believing. You won't stop pressing into God's presence. Because that's not who you are.
The just shall live by faith. And you, by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, will endure.
The book of Hebrews speaks directly into this tension. Written to believers who had endured persecution, public shame, imprisonment, and loss of property, the letter addresses a community that hadn't abandoned their faith under pressure—but now faced something perhaps more dangerous than persecution itself: weariness.
The Greater Danger
Persecution can be endured. It may even cost us everything, but it's a finite trial. The greater danger—the Trojan horse to our faith—is growing tired over time. It's the slow fade, the gradual disconnection, the quiet giving up that happens not in a moment of crisis but through accumulated disappointment and delayed promises.
Hebrews 10:35-36 cuts to the heart of this struggle: "Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised."
Notice the progression: confidence leads to endurance, endurance leads to doing God's will, and doing God's will leads to receiving the promise. But here's the key insight—endurance itself is God's will. It's not merely a means to an end; it's part of the journey God has ordained.
Confidence and Risk
The confidence spoken of here isn't self-assurance or positive thinking. It's the willingness to undertake activities that involve risk and danger for the sake of the Kingdom. It's the boldness that marked the early church when observers said of Peter and John, "They realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, but they had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13).
True biblical confidence takes risks. It moves to unfamiliar places, speaks truth when it's uncomfortable, and stands firm when everything around us says to retreat. This kind of confidence doesn't originate in our own abilities—it flows from knowing who God is and trusting His character completely.
We need a fresh baptism of this kind of boldness. The world isn't waiting for another program or political solution. It's waiting for people filled with the Holy Spirit who will step into their moment with grace, truth, love, and righteousness.
Endurance: More Than Gritting Your Teeth
Endurance isn't about white-knuckling our way through difficulty. It's not merely stubborn persistence. Rather, endurance is an expression of confidence that God will keep His promises.
When we endure, we're declaring with our lives: "I know God is not a man that He should lie. I know He keeps His word to a thousand generations. Even if I don't see the fulfillment in my lifetime, it will happen—in my children's lifetime, or my children's children's."
This is why Jesus said, "Only the one who endures until the end is saved" (Matthew 24:13). Endurance reveals genuine faith. It's the proof that our confidence isn't just mental assent but a living trust that shapes how we actually live.
The Urgent Hour
Like the prophet Habakkuk, who watched enemy armies surround his nation, we live in an urgent time. Habakkuk cried out with questions we've all asked: "Why isn't God intervening? Why does evil seem to prosper? Why the delay?"
God's answer wasn't to stop the invasion or remove the hardship. Instead, He declared: "The just shall live by faith" (Habakkuk 2:4).
In other words, the righteous don't step away from God during uncertainty—they press into Him. They hold on when their world spins out of control. They remain faithful because they're full of faith.
Two Responses to Pressure
When pressure mounts, we have only two options: we can live by faith and not shrink back, or we can shrink back. There's no neutral ground. Apathy is shrinking back. Disengagement is shrinking back.
The alternative is to step up and meet the moment. People's lives hang in the balance right now. Families are at stake. Souls are in peril. The fabric of society teeters. This isn't a time to coast or chill or let off in the spirit. This is the moment for which we've been prepared.
Habakkuk's Declaration
After wrestling with God and facing the reality of impending judgment, Habakkuk made one of Scripture's most powerful declarations of faith:
"Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation" (Habakkuk 3:17-18).
This is faith that endures. It rejoices not because circumstances are favorable, but because God is good. It praises not on account of how everything panned out, but on account of who God is.
Whether this past year was your breakout season or possibly the worst year of your life, you have the same opportunity: to yet praise the Lord. To yet rejoice in the God of your salvation.
You Are Not Those Who Shrink Back
Here's the prophetic word for this season: You will not shrink back. Not as a command to try harder, but as a declaration of identity. You are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls (Hebrews 10:39).
Why? Because Christ never shrank back. Even at the moment of greatest pressure, when He could have called legions of angels, when He could have stepped down from the cross, Jesus endured. And the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.
You are a new creation. The old has passed away; the new has come. You died in the waters of baptism and were raised to new life. That's not just theology—it's your identity. You are not a person who quits. You are not someone who gives up. That's not who you are in Christ.
Moving Forward
So whatever 2026 holds—and none of us knows—move forward with this confidence: God has infused you with resurrection power. His life flows through you. And by that power, you will not shrink back.
You won't stop praying. You won't stop worshiping. You won't stop believing. You won't stop pressing into God's presence. Because that's not who you are.
The just shall live by faith. And you, by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, will endure.
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