Continue

"And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming" (1 John 2:28).

It happens whenever we make a pit stop, or pull off the road to grab a drink, or when we just need to get out to stop and stretch on a long journey. The GPS will chime in, first saying, "Return to the route." Then, if I don't do that immediately, the GPS asks me something like, "Would you like to continue on this route or do you need a new route? Say yes or no to continue."

I wish we had a spiritual GPS, alerting us when we get off the route! Oh, wait, we do...only such direction comes from the Holy Spirit, and his voice is not nearly so intrusive. You have to listen for it.  We wander from the route Jesus has laid out for us in many ways. We stop doing devotions or going to church because it's getting hard. We neglect people and the things we know have helped us spiritually in the past. And, at first, it's "just for a time." (Aren't we glad God doesn't take time off from us?) And, maybe, at first we hear the voice of the Spirit: "Do you want to continue on this route or choose a new one?" But as we ignore his voice day by day, it gets easier for us to drown it out, to not hear it at all. We may not turn off the GPS, but we stop paying attention to it.

John wants us to listen to the GPS and, more than that, continue on the path Jesus has laid out for us, the path that saints before us have trod, the route that will get us where we need to go. In fact, John says as we "continue" on that journey, not turning to the right or to the left, we will be "confident" and "unashamed" when Jesus comes for us. We won't have to worry; we will arrive at the destination safe and sound because we've faithfully followed the GPS.

The word translated as "continue" has a whole range of meanings: dwell, stay, sojourn, endure, or to continue unchanged just to list a few. It has a sense of staying on the path, even when we're resting. It gives you a feeling of forward momentum—moving toward Jesus. If we do that, John says, we will be safe. We can have confidence. We will be unashamed when he returns.

So if we make a wrong turn, we need to pay close attention to the voice of the Holy Spirit. "Do you want to return to the route?" Yes, indeed. I do! Get me back on track, because I want to be confident and unashamed on the last day.