Meet Mason Haynes

For as long as I can remember, I was the most competitive kid—the one who could never accept losing or backing down. I was competitive and faithful to baseball, school, and anything that I set my mind to. But around the end of eighth grade, that fire and competitiveness for Jesus began to burn out. I was tired of fighting the world and my fleshly desires that so often tempted and beat me down. In the last six months, however, I have started to see walking with Jesus as a competition. Me against my sins and this world, but the cool part is that I have the God of the universe on my side. Faithfulness to Him is what keeps it all together and keeps me going and growing with Him. We see this in a big way from Abraham.

The end of verse 16 talks about Abraham and how we should share his faith. In a way I look up to Abraham in this story for his acts of faith toward God no matter how hard the circumstances. Abraham and his wife Sarah were strong servants of God and had continued to be for many years despite their disappointment in not being able to have children. Then, at the age of 90, Sarah gave birth to a son, fulfilling the promise God had given them years ago. It's encouraging to see how God rewards those who are faithful even when it's hard. But what's even more encouraging in the story of Abraham is that Abraham was satisfied with God even though God had not yet given him a son. 

I have just experienced the hardest year of my life with broken relationships, falling into sin, and temptation continuously. Faithfulness on the back end of it has become the driving force in my walk with Christ. I have sought to leave it all up to God, remaining true to Him because God is good all the time. So let's be like Abraham and be found faithful to Christ today.