Being Steadfast - Part 1

1 Corinthians 15:58 ESV

58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Steadfast (Greek - hedraios) - being firm, steadfast, concluding (a matter) with conviction

* Swanson, J. (1997). In Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) (electronic ed.). Logos Research Systems, Inc.

Stedfast, unmovable. The former (steadfast) refers to their firm establishment in the faith; the latter (immovable) to that establishment as related to assault from temptation or persecution. Fixedness is a condition of abounding in work. All activity has its centre in rest.*

*Vincent, M. R. (1887). Word studies in the New Testament (Vol. 3, p. 287). Charles Scribner’s Sons.

Psalm 57:7 ESV

7 My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody!

Psalm 57:7 KJV 1900

7 My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

Colossians 1:23 NKJV

23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Colossians 1:19–27 NKJV

19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. 24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, 26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

1. We are steadfast when our faith is firmly planted in the Gospel.

Preceding verses...

1 Corinthians 15:51–52 NKJV

51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

1 Corinthians 15:35–38 NKJV

35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” 36 Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. 37 And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body.

1 Corinthians 15:42–45 NKJV

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

2. Faith in the Gospel is the Focal Point of Spiritual Power.

1 Corinthians 2:1–5 ESV

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Romans 1:15 ESV

15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

Romans 1:16–17 ESV

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

3. To experience Spiritual Power, We Must Root the Truth in our Heart.

Psalm 57:7 ESV

7 My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody!

HEART Center of the physical, mental, and spiritual life of humans. The word “heart” refers to the physical organ and is considered to be the center of the physical life. Eating and drinking are spoken of as strengthening the heart (Gen. 18:5; Judg. 19:5; Acts 14:17). As the center of physical life, the heart came to stand for the person as a whole. It became the focus for all the vital functions of the body, including both intellectual and spiritual life. The heart and the intellect are closely connected, the heart being the seat of intelligence: “For this people’s heart has grown callous … otherwise they might … understand with their hearts and turn back” (Matt. 13:15 HCSB). The heart is connected with thinking: As a person “thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7 KJV). To ponder something in one’s heart means to consider it carefully (Luke 1:66; 2:19). “To set one’s heart on” is the literal Hebrew that means to give attention to something, to worry about it (1 Sam. 9:20). To call to heart (mind) something means to remember something (Isa. 46:8). All of these are functions of the mind but are connected with the heart in biblical language.

Proverbs 23:7 AMP

7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. As one who reckons, he says to you, eat and drink, yet his heart is not with you [but is grudging the cost].

Have you ever felt defeated in life or in your circumstances? Have you ever felt your future is defeated as well? The definition of the word “defeat” is the act of being overcome, a setback, overthrown, brought to nothing; frustration, and the act or event of losing.

The good news is, what you’re feeling is only a feeling, not the truth, not when you’re walking every day with Jesus. If we allow our feelings to take the front seat of our thinking and steer us where they want to go in our circumstances, we’ll end up parked on a dead end street.

However, when we recognize and believe the truth about what God says about us, we can choose to put our feelings in the back seat and place what God says in the front seat. This choice is what steers and keeps us on the path that leads to victory and blessing.

Our emotions and God’s truth create the battlefield we must fight daily.

Satan wants to make us feel defeated based on how things appear to our natural eyes. This is when we must believe more in what we don’t see than what we do see in the natural. This is called exercising our faith- believing what God says. When Satan tells us we are defeated, God says, “No weapon turned against you will succeed. You will silence every voice raised up to accuse you.” Isaiah 54:17

Isaiah 54:17 NKJV

17 No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the Lord.

We have a free will to choose what we want to believe- then act on our belief. What we speak reveals a lot about what we believe. Are we speaking what God says about us or are we speaking what Satan wants us to believe?

Let me encourage you not to lose hope when you feel defeated because God says-

“In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Romans 8:37

Romans 8:35–36 ESV

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

THAT’S WHAT IT FEELS LIKE! BUT NO!!!

Romans 8:37 ESV

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

“For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.” 1 John 5:4

1 John 5:4 NKJV

4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

Psalm 57:7 KJV 1900

7 My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

4) We Overcome Negative Feelings through Faith in What Christ Has Already Accomplished.

2 Corinthians 4:7–12 ESV

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.