Steadfast. Steadfast in the truth and authority of God’s Word. Steadfast in following Christ wherever He leads. This week let’s look at another aspect of our call to be steadfast. In Acts 20, Paul was saying goodbye to the leaders of the Ephesus church. He was headed to Jerusalem, and he was, as he told them, well aware of what awaited him there. “Bonds and afflictions abide me” is how he put it. Everywhere he went and everywhere he would go, he lived with trials. He faced difficulties. Beaten. Imprisoned. Robbed. Stoned. Shipwrecked. Cold. Threatened. Burdened by ministry. Constant pressure, pain, and persecution (2 Corinthians 11:23-28). And then there was that never-removed “thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me,” he said (2 Corinthians 12:7-8). As he spoke of the fact of the trials that he knew lay before him, in Acts 20:24 he said this: “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” In other words, “I will be steadfast.” And he was. Till the end. I’m afraid that it doesn’t take much to move some believers from faithfully serving to being offended, dropping out, or going completely AWOL. They don’t stand. They don’t endure. They don’t finish. When we think of being steadfast, it includes our commitment to faithfully finish that which God has given us to do. Living out the will of God has its valleys, times of deep waters, and periods of hurt, pain, and trial. In those times will we, by the grace of God, say with Paul, “None of these things move me”?