Faith waits. Faith anticipates. Faith doesn't give up.
Faith persists. Faith perseveres. Faith does't disappear. Faith doesn't fail. Faith doesn't fade.
Faith hopes. Faith holds.
Faith? No matter what, always believes.
And of course, as Hebrews (11:1) defines it.... Faith, it "is BEING SURE of what you hope for and CERTAIN of what you don't see."
Funny! I posted the first paragraph above as my Facebook status this morning. A friend commented beneath it saying:
ReplyDelete"the dot dot dot
ellipsis n. , pl. , -ses . The omission of a word or phrase necessary for a complete syntactical construction but not necessary for understanding.
Don't you love it??? The last four words.... "not necessary for understanding.... That IS FAITH... the substance of things HOPEd for the evidence of things not seen!"
I commented beneath her:
"HaHa. That's funny. I looked that up last night... and texted the definition to Prissy. "The triple-dot punctuation mark is also called a suspension point, points of ellipsis... It is a mark or series of marks that usually indicate an intentional omission of a word in the original text. An ellipsis can also be used to indicate a pause in speech, an unfinished thought, or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence..."
YES! TRULY! "Not necessary for understanding!!!"
Faith itself IS the evidence of!!!!!!!!!"
I love people and the thoughts within them!!!
Another friend commented. She said:
ReplyDelete"I am continually reminded of the faith of Abraham, being faithful to the point of about to sacrifice his only son, and then God provided another sacrifice....that keeps me going, knowing God will provide everything for us; emotional, physical, material...we just listen to him and remain faithful in our love....pretty big stuff!"
To.... which I replied:
" I LOVE Abraham!!!!!!!!!!!! Being that it took so many, many, many years for him to finally have his promised son; no doubt that was the foundation of the strength when it came time for him to sacrifice him. You know the song (and the verse)... "Strength will rise when we wait upon the Lord, when we wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon..." Everytime I hear it I think of Abraham... and the strength that rose in him BECAUSE OF HIS WAIT!!!!!!!!!!! Wait has purpose!!! And yes, it grows our strength and our faith in our Savior! Wait has its reason. And faith is a good thing! How will we have faith.... if we don't have to wait for it?"
Another wrote: " the dot dot dot is always the exciting and sometimes challenging part."
ReplyDeleteAMEN to that!!!!!! For what would life be without some anticipation in it???
Powerful post! I went to a Bible Study last week where we discussed wilderness periods. I have often thought of my "waiting" times as wildernesses which I considered a bad thing. However a wilderness can be a time of extreme bounty! Waiting brings strength as you stated above. We looked at Deut. 8 and in reference to the chapter, we discussed how the Israelites kept their eyes on the signs of God, but Moses kept his eyes on the God who gave them the signs. Therefore the Israelites were not really in a wilderness at all considering that God provided their EVERY need: clothes and sandals that never spoiled, fire by night, water by rock, food from above, etc... To say all that, God provides us with such strength and provision in our "waiting" times.
ReplyDeleteGreat points, Monique! I always think of Abraham in my "waits." He waited such a very long time. And when I think of him, I realize the strength, the faith that grew, for him in his wait when God finally did for him what God had promised. IF the wait hadn't been so long, making the promise even more miraculous when it came, then Abraham wouldn't have been prepared (pre!!! (before-hand) pared!) when the time came for him to sacrifice his son. Woe, God so knew what He was doing! Yes, He was growing his faith strong.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me think of the song everytime, "Strength will rise when we wait upon the Lord, when we wait upon the Lord..."
Okay... looking back at my remarks, I guess I said all this already. Oops!