Cleave to the Lord

“When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.” - Act 11v23

Barnabas is known as the encourager or the exhorter. His role in the church seems to be to go from place to place encouraging the believers. Here the church at Antioch had just begun to grow and were seeing people, including Gentiles, get saved. Barnabas went to them and gave them some simple words of advice.

“Purpose in your heart to continue with the Lord,” he said. Even though the word has almost lost its old meaning I personally like the old King James term “cleave.” To me it just sounds like really, really sticking to something. Now, that may be because I grew up with ideas like, “A man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife.”

Anyway, back to topic. Barnabas told them to purpose ahead of time to stick close to God. That decision cannot be put off until we face a crisis. We must know in advance that we are simply going to stick to God when the struggles come. There is a saying, “Those who fail to plan plan to fail.,” and this is certainly true when it comes to our walk with the Lord. If we don’t plan and commit in advance that we are going to stick to Him than when the tough times come we are not going to “stick it.”

If we are going to walk with the Lord we must, absolutely, take the advice and by the grace of God determine before hand that we are going to “keep on keeping on” with the Lord. Not being a Greek scholar I am not sure how accurate it is, but I really like the way Wycliffe put in his translation way back in the 14^th century – “…admonished all men in purpose of heart to dwell in the Lord.”

Have you already decided that now matter what comes your way you are going to dwell in the Lord?