“I have kept the faith.” —2 Timothy 4:7 (the apostle Paul)
“Keep the faith, baby,” said civil rights leader Adam Clayton Powell. “Keep the faith,” Bon Jovi sang. A common expression, used to encourage someone to carry on, to hold onto their hopes and dreams. This famous phrase was inspired by Paul’s end of life declaration, “I have kept the faith.”
Paul kept the faith. He preached it. He lived it. He died true to his convictions and his Lord. And he knew what it meant to despair of life itself…but to keep the faith in the One who never left him, never abandoned him, and gave him hope and the strength to carry on. His words have encouraged and inspired centuries of generations to “keep the faith.”
When I reach the end of my life, if I can say, with a tiny mustard seed of faith, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith,” I will die a happy man, satisfied that I fulfilled God’s will for my life.
I pray for all of us that we will hang onto what we know to be true, and when all else fails, keep the faith.
“The life of faith is not a life of mounting up with wings, but a life of walking and not fainting…Faith never knows it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.” —Oswald Chambers
