Every baseball season reaches a point where the excitement begins to wear off.
Opening Day is filled with anticipation. The stadiums are packed, the players are fresh, and every team believes this could be their year. But by the middle of the summer, things begin to feel different.
When August comes around, professional baseball players have played well over one hundred games. They’ve traveled thousands of miles, taken countless swings, and repeated the same routine day after day.
Baseball has a name for this stretch of the season:
The dog days.
I have always liked that expression because it relates to much more than baseball. Most of us eventually experience our own version of the “dog days.” Maybe it’s in our job. Maybe it’s raising children, caring for a loved one, or simply carrying the same burdens day after day. Life can become repetitive, and over time, even faithful people can grow weary.
And Jesus predicted this would happen.
When Hearts Grows Cold
Speaking about the last days, Jesus once said:
“Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.” (Matthew 24:12–13)
Those words naturally raise some difficult questions.
What does Jesus mean that people will fall away? If I feel spiritually exhausted, should I be concerned?
Before we answer those questions, we need to remember something that Scripture makes abundantly clear: our salvation begins with God, not us.
Yes, Christians are called to persevere. We are called to follow Christ faithfully. But our confidence has never rested in the strength of our grip–it rests in His grip on us.
Reserved in Heaven
The Apostle Peter reminds us that God, according to His great mercy, has caused us to be born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus. He then goes on to describe the inheritance waiting for every believer:
“…an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.” (1 Peter 1:4)
Reserved. That may be my favorite word in the passage. When something is reserved, it has already been set aside. It isn’t waiting to see whether someone else claims it first. Peter says our salvation is like that. It has been secured by Christ Himself.
Then Peter continues:
“…who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:5)
Who is doing the protecting?
God is.
That doesn’t remove our responsibility to trust, obey, and have faith in Him, but it does remind us where our assurance comes from. We can persevere because God is preserving our future.
The Better Season
Peter describes our inheritance as imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. One of the most encouraging realities of the Christian life is remembering that this world is not our home.
The mortgage won’t last forever.
The difficult boss won’t last forever.
The health struggles you’re facing won’t last forever.
Even the dog days of summer won’t last forever.
These things are painful, but they are temporary. Peter reminds us that we have something infinitely better waiting for us. Our inheritance is reserved in heaven, and nothing can take that away from us.
So if you feel like you’re walking through the dog days this summer, don’t lose heart. Keep on keeping on. Remember that your hope has never depended on your ability to hold everything together. Your hope rests in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Every baseball season eventually comes to an end.
Your dog days won’t last forever.
But your inheritance in heaven will.
Blessings,
