While I want to write about the wedding, God calls me to Himself that I might think about and put into practice His will for me today. However, one incident from that wedding relates to the Scripture that I read this morning. I visited with two women, both widows, who believe in Jesus. I’ve always admired them and appreciated their godly example. It was good to see the fire in their eyes and hear them speak of the power of God, even though they are both in their eighties. Too often, as Christians age, that fire goes out or is replaced by the complaints of aging.
This morning I read Romans 1:16-17. It says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’”
I like the phrase “from faith to faith” for it gives me a picture of God moving faith from one generation to the next. I almost felt some of that transfer on Saturday as I listened to the words and observed the lives of those two women who still trust Him and have continued to be faithful in living for Him.
The devotional thoughts from Ears from Harvested Sheaves touched me too. I have the same horrendous sense of weakness that it speaks of, but am reminded of those two women who are older than I am yet still living by faith. With minor editing, this is what the reading says:
A life of faith in Christ is as necessary to our present and experiential salvation as His death upon the cross was to our past and actual salvation. If you are alive to what you are as a poor fallen sinner, you will see yourself surrounded by enemies, temptations, sins, and snares. You feel yourself utterly defenseless, as weak as water, without any strength to stand against them. Pressed down by the weight of unbelief, you see a mountain of difficulty before your eyes, sometimes in providence and sometimes in grace. You find, too, that your heart is a cage of unclean birds and that in you, that is, in your flesh, there dwells no good thing. You have neither the will nor the power in yourself to fight or flee. How then shall this mountain become a plain? How shall you escape the snares and temptations spread in your path? How shall you get the better of all your enemies, external, internal, infernal, and reach heaven’s gate safely at last? If you say, “By the salvation already accomplished,” are you sure that salvation belongs to you? Where is the evidence of it if you have not a present faith in Christ? How can that past salvation profit you in your present troubles unless there be an application of it? It is this application and manifestation of salvation which being saved by His life is all about. See how it works, and what suitability is in it. You are all weakness—and He is and has all strength—which He makes perfect in your weakness. You are all helplessness against sin, temptation, and a thousand foes—but help is laid upon Christ as one that is mighty. He therefore sends you help from the sanctuary and strengthens you out of Zion that these sins and enemies may not get the better of you.The psalmist prayed, “O God, You have taught me from my youth; and to this day I declare Your wondrous works. Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come” (Psalm 71:17-18).
I’m thankful today that God never leaves or forsakes me. I’m also thankful for His faithfulness to those who pray that same request, and then demonstrate it in their lives for my generation. This gives me encouragement and assurance that He will enable me to do the same for those who come after me.
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