The call to endurance is the word of the moment in the book of Hebrews. An appeal is laid out to the Hebrews and should be heard by us too; don’t throw away your confidence! Everyone reacts differently in hardship, in this passage we read that many who endured awful things did so joyfully! For the believer (for us!) the call is to keep pressing into Jesus – don’t shrink back, don’t go to self-preservation, have faith and hold on.

We read a lot in Hebrews about the High Priest ‘Melchizedek’ and that can seem confusing for us and maybe not all that relevant at times too. Again, we see another comparison here, and once more we are reminded Jesus is better. In the midst of all our uncertainty, we need to press into the fullness of this promise for us. Jesus has enacted, for all time, a better promise for us than even that of Melchizedek (who was a pretty big deal). We’re not coming to God by any other means other than Jesus, the Son, made perfect forever, who paid for our sins with his sacrifice, once and for all.

We search for assurance in so many places, in jobs, in relationships, in the property ladder. We tick as many boxes as we can, often thinking that, in that gain, assurance will be found. But what about for our souls, what does assurance for our souls look like? It’s found in only one place, one person – Jesus. There is a sureness and a certainty which we as believers can live with. The writer calls it an anchor for the soul and it has been guaranteed for us by the work of Jesus. In the tumult of our world, in the ever-changing face of everything around us, holding fast to this anchor is needed more than ever. So, what are we holding on to?

How easy it is to reach a plateau of complacency in our relationship with God. We, as was with the readers, can easily become listless in how we pursue Jesus. Have you ever just gone through the motions? The call and challenge here, to those reading and to us, is to keep going, to not turn back, to press on and hold on to the assurance we have, to keep moving in our faith and to grow to maturity towards our inheritance.

Why is it important to us that Jesus is the Great High Priest? We don’t really work in those kind of priestly systems, so why does it matter to us? The significance here for us is once again that Jesus is better. The old system was one that was stop and start and it was never fully enough – we all have examples of that in our lives, of where our own attempts have not been enough. Jesus put an end to that once, and for all – salvation is total and complete, lasting and forever through him. Jesus is better.

Throughout this book, the writer takes us often to the Old Testament. It might not seem that significant for us to know that Jesus is greater than Moses – sure it meant something to the Jewish Christians reading it, but to us? What we’re reminded of here again is how easy it is to be preoccupied by old systems, by old ways, by old structures and in the midst of it, forgetting Jesus who is better than all our systems and structures. Our part in it is to keep our hearts soft towards him and be the greatest encouragers of one another to ‘hold fast to our confidence.’

Part of what we see across this book is that as the writer points us towards Jesus and challenges us to hold fast to our faith, he also brings warnings to us. These warnings aren’t meant to induce fear (there is no fear in love) but they also aren’t meant to be comfortable. Are we willing to become uncomfortable as we grow in our faith? In this passage, the writer tells us to pay attention to the message we’ve been given, to not neglect this great gift that has been won for us by Jesus through his death on our behalf.

The writer to the Hebrews starts as he means to go on; it’s all about Jesus. Who Jesus is and what he has done is so central to our faith. He goes on to make a comparison between Jesus and angels, which for us could seem like something that isn’t super relevant – but it is! Part of the point here for the first readers was that they were getting distracted by the old trappings and not remembering the new gift of life in Jesus. The same could be true of us, let’s start as we mean to go on, with our eyes fixed on Jesus.

‘…the best thing we can do is put our fists together and pray’ – Martin Luther. The Bible is clear that we are in a battle. Spiritual Warfare has often been reserved for a certain type of person but, as C.S. Lewis says, there is no neutral ground in the universe and so therefore there can be no neutral people. As Christians, we are all called to stand up to the darkness with the name of Jesus. What is Spiritual Warfare then? What do we need to know about our enemy, about our authority and about how to ‘fight’ as we live in the now and not yet of the Kingdom?

‘It doesn’t matter what you’ve said or done; what you’ve thought about saying or doing; where you’ve been or who you’ve been there with – there is more grace in God than sin in you’ – Pete Greig . Besides asking, one of the things we often associate with prayer is saying sorry. Sometimes we get lost amidst the magnitude of our own sin that we fail to engage with the greater magnitude of God’s grace. He always forgives. What is necessary for us is to confess – to actually say the thing, both ‘vertically’ to God and ‘horizontally’ to one another through mutual accountability. But also to seek reconciliation and see how the choice to forgive can bring radical healing to a broken world.