Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son and we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
– Hebrews 3:6
Don’t you just love the language of the Bible? This is just one verse and it feels like we see this every day as we’ve prayed through a verse or a couple of verses. The language, the phrases, every one of them inspired by the Holy Spirit. There’s so much here in just this one verse, Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. There’s so much there based on what Hebrews 3 is saying before this. The faithfulness of Jesus, the supremacy of Jesus over the household of God as the Son of God.
Hebrews 3:6 teaches us about our identity as God’s people.
And then it says, “We are his house.” We’re the household of God. This is talking about us who are in Christ for all who have placed their faith in Jesus. You’re part of the household of God. You are the temple of God, the dwelling place of God. We are his house. And then listen to this language If indeed we hold fast our confidence and are boasting in our hope. Just think about that language. Hold fast our confidence.
There are so many reasons in the world today not to be confident. So many unknowns in the world, so much uncertainty in the world, instability, and not just in the world broadly. Certainly, as we look at the news, all kinds of uncertainty and instability, wars and division and evil and moral levels, unnatural levels, natural disasters. I mean, there’s so much reason for anxiety, worry, and not just in the big picture world around us, but in our lives and the things that are going on in our lives.
There’s a lot of reason for lack of confidence until you remember that you’re the household of God and Jesus is faithful. So hold fast to confidence. Not in this world, but in the one who, Hebrews 1:3, “upholds the world, the whole universe by the Word of his power.” Hold fast to confidence. As a follower of Jesus, you don’t have to worry ever. You don’t have to be anxious. And you don’t have to be afraid. You have confidence. Hold fast to confidence and “our boasting in our hope.” What language, a boast.
Hebrews 3:6 teaches us the stability of our hope.
Think about someone who boasts. I mean, usually, we think of that with a negative connotation. Somebody who’s boasting about what they have or what they’re able to do. But we are called to boast in what? In our hope, in the hope we have. What’s the hope we have? Again, it’s not found in this world. It’s found in the one who upholds this world and the universe by the Word of his power. It’s found in the one who is faithful over our lives, over God’s house, over us, over you and me.
We have hope in the one who has conquered sin and death and the grave. So no matter what is going on in your life today, I just want to encourage you, hold fast to confidence and boast and hope. You’re the household of God. And so we pray, God, thank you, praise you for the privilege of being your house and being your people, being your family, being your temple, the place where your presence, your power, and your glory and your love dwell in us.
This verse teaches us to hold onto the hope set before us.
And so we pray that you would help us to live today holding fast to our confidence. Help us not to hold loosely to this confidence or just barely hang on to it. God, we pray you help us to hold fast to it today, the confidence that we have in you and your sovereignty over all things and your authority over everything in the world and over everything in our lives and your love for us and your promises to work all things together for the good of those who love you.
My God, we hold fast to our confidence in you and we boast in our hope in you. Yes, God, we praise you for the hope we have in you. Jesus, we praise you for conquering sin and the grave, for conquering death and Satan, for your promise that one day you’re coming back and your justice will reign. Your mercy will reign on the entire creation in a new heaven and a new earth. We boast in our hope in you today. Lord, we praise you because we know how this story ends and it ends really well, eternally well, exceedingly well for all who trust in you. We boast in our hope and so we pray. We pray for the spread of this confidence, the spread of this hope through our lives today. Lord, help us to live hopeful lives that point people to hope in you.
Prayer for the Deori People
And God, we pray for people who don’t have this hope. God, we pray for the Deori people of India, Northeastern India, remote parts of Northeastern India. This Hindu people group of 61,000 people, god, we pray for the hope of Jesus to spread to them. God help them to hear, cause your church to rise up, and go and do whatever it takes to get the good news of your hope in Jesus to the Deori people of India.
God, we pray for the spread of your hope to them and billions of other people who’ve never even heard the hope that we have in Jesus. Oh God, as we hold fast in confidence and boast in our hope, I pray that confidence and hope in you would spread through us all according to your Word in Hebrews 3:6. In Jesus’ name, the one who is faithful over God’s house as Son. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
