Faith and patience win the day

Faith is important, but it has to be worked out. It’s not always instant. There can be a time element to its fulfilment.

Consider Abraham, called by Paul ‘the father of faith,’ who waited 25 years to see God’s promise of a son and heir come to pass. That’s a long time to sustain faith. What would you consider to be the longest time you have held on to a faith project?

In fact, Abraham went even further with his faith. He and others died in faith having not yet received their promises. They were yet to come in another generation. Hebrews 11:13:

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Could you hang on to faith this long? Can you believe even though you may not see that promise in your lifetime?

Faith and Patience

This is called having faith with patience. Continued endurance against the odds. Not letting go of the vision God has given you.

Sometimes we just want what we are believing God for to drop into our laps instantly, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Faith has to be tested on occasion. It needs to be proved. Is it genuine? Is it faith?

Hebrews 6:12 encourages us to ‘imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.’ The writer goes on to share the example of Abraham’s continued faith.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

That promise being Isaac, his son of promise. Abraham patiently endured. He kept going in faith until he had received the promise. 

The good news for us is that God’s promise, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you” continues to all generations from Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob, on through Christ Jesus, and to all who are sons and daughters of the Almighty through faith in Jesus. See Galatians 3:26-29:

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

If we are heirs through Christ and through Abraham, then we come into that same promise God made to Abraham. We are of God’s covenant with Abraham, through the Seed, who is Christ.

And we have the same ability to sustain our faith to its completion. Like Abraham, through faith and patience, we inherit the promises of God.

Trials of faith

There are times of challenge and even persecution that some go through where their faith is really tested by fire.

Mostly in the West we do not have to go through these things because there is a political basis of Judea-Christian ethics, although we may suffer light persecution in the form of prohibitions and insults–nothing really terrible.

But in some nations people face bigger issues even from authorities. The Thessalonians in Paul’s time suffered similarly, yet their faith grew in the midst of trials. 2 Thessalonians 1:3-8:

We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other, so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer; since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Patience and faith. Faith that works through love and is sustained by patient endurance to the end.

When we read something in the Word of God that grabs our attention, and on which we can stand as a faith project, we have the ability through the Word to advance in our ministry, in our conviction, in our application, and in the way in which we obtain the promises of God.

That new understanding and project will be tested, but we will come through it if we endure with patience and faith.

More to come…