While reading Wally Fry’s devotional this morning at “Truth at Palmya” about the Church at Philadelphia. This piece of scipture grabbed my attention :

Revelation 3:1
” Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.”

“I also will keep thee”

The Lords promise to keep us as he did the Pharaoh in Abrams time:

Genesis 20:6
“Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.”

Because of the integrity of thy heart, I have kept thee:

Integrity of heart:

How reliable is your integrity of heart?  Can you be trusted with someone else’s money,  goods or wife?

David, while hiding from Saul, snuck out at night and cut off a piece of his robe. The integrity of his heart, his conscience,  caused him to know he shouldn’t have done this.

There is a story of old honest Abe, at one point he was a Postmaster, when the Post office closed he had a small sum of money that hadn’t been accouted for.

Years later a man came looking for this money.   Although Abraham had been in  and was in poverty,  he went to a drawer and took a cloth out that was wrapped around the money and returned it.

Some of us would have borrowed it when in need.  Do you have honest Abes integrity?   I would hope I do but am afraid I don’t.

God give us a conscience, the inborn knowledge of right and wrong, he gives us integrity of heart.

“And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.”

“when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:”

“Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God”

“Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”

The difference between Adam and Noah is that Noah obeyed the Lord, walked with God.  He took control  of  “the lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes, the pride of life”. Rather than them controlling him.

We need to take control,  the Lord has given us the ability  (see Enoch, Noah, Abram, Moses or David ).

All the heroes of the Bible were men, just like us,  including Jesus, tempted in all ways, what gave them standing with the Lord is the life of  consiconscience, the integrity of their hearts, the desire to Walk with God in obedience.

To get back to Revelation 10:3 Jesus said:
” Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation,”

What does that mean, the word of my patience?

The Word of His Patience is the Gospel of Christ.

John 3:16-17
King James Version (KJV)
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.   For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

The point we do not emphasis enough is, the Son came not to condemn,  but to save.  We are big on condemnation.   STOP THAT!!!

We need to keep the word of His Patience.   We must learn to live the Gospel,  to love our neighbors as ourselves, to share the love of Jesus in word and deed.  Take control,  do not let the three causes of sin, control us.

As with the early Israelites, the hardest time to stay close to and Walk with God is in the “Good Times “, when we are victorious, over the worrys and troubles of the world.

That is when we don’t need God, we are doing fine.

Why did I ever think I needed Gods help?

We slide into sin. Sin brings death, unbelief, idolatry. Eventually the Lord seems so far away, we cannot be forgiven.

That’s why we need to keep His Word of Patience. Even in the “Good Times “, so He will keep us in the times of temptation and tribulation.

There is a way back.  Confess your sins, turn back to God.  “God is Faithful and Just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ”

God is Faithful, are we?

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The Fix-it Shop-Filling Station
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Know you are loved.