It Takes Faith To Be Commended
As a child I believed I would someday marry and have children. I was certain of it. When I met my husband, I knew within a few hours that I would marry him someday. When he asked me to marry him two months after I met him, I looked forward to the day I would be his wife with a hope for our future, and a certainty of many days of happiness.
I’ve not always had that kind of faith. I’ve not always believed in others, in myself, or in God. So many times in my life, I quiver at the least difficulty. I cannot see beyond my circumstances: pain, loss, discouragement. I am unsure of myself and what God can do with me as I yield my life to him. I evaluate, analyze and calculate. I play ”what if” and imagine every single thing that could go wrong. Then I begin to see some of those things coming to pass and what will happen to me when they do. This my friends, is lack of faith. For it is written:
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.” Hebrews 1:1
The ancients were commended for the kind of faith that placed a son on an altar, fully expecting God to provide a sacrificial lamb in his son’s place. The ancients were commended for risking their lives, fully expecting God to intervene. The ancients were trusting God in the most dire of circumstances, the most nonsensical, the most impossible, the most irrational. Their faith believed without seeing, trusting in the Word of the Great I AM to lead them through the wilderness of life and the shadows of death.
I’ve had that kind of faith. It sealed my life for eternity in Christ. It kept me in the long dark hours of uncertainty when my granddaughter had a life-threatening blood disorder. It comforted me in the moments, hours, days, months and years following my son’s death. It carries me every time I am weak. It cradles me every time I am weary. It soothes me every time I am lonely. It assures me every time I fail to live up to my own expectations. It never fails me in the shadows, and it fuels me in the light. I know the faith with which God gave me new life in His Son, Jesus, will keep me till I meet Him face to face. It takes faith to have faith.
PRAYER: Lord, thank you for the faith I have and the favor of Your grace. Please keep me mindful of the certainty and hope offered to me through Your only begotten Son. Pour out upon your people this faith that will bring them to You, oh, Lord Most High.
© Hariette Petersen, SelahV Today, 2010
