Faith Of Our Fathers

On this final Lord’s Day Sunday in a month that is just one day shy of ending, we must take time to give our heavenly Father praise, honour and glory for all His mercies and kindness to us. We all will agree that His love goes beyond who we are. Not one of us is good, as we have all sinned and we all fall short of God’s glory. We all have fallen short, because our faith falls short and without faith we simply cannot make Father God happy.

If the Lord wills, and we are given the privilege of seeing a new month, which is bursting to be born, we all will need to activate faith as never before. I say this without hesitation, because we are living in some perilous times, where we are being bombarded with all kinds of ideologies, ways, and unscrupulous teachings, which continually weaken our faith in Father God. We need the faith which was once in our forefathers, as we look forward, God willing, to a new month.

It is with this thought in mind that I invite you to share a hymn of triumphant, victorious faith, by H.W Faber. I know that it is well-known and well-loved by many. The hymn is, Faith Of Our Fathers. Here is the verse chosen for our consideration of true faith, in this week’s offerings. I really believe that what we are about to receive is needed, as we face the closing of half a year and begin on the second half.

Faith of our fathers, we will love

Both friend and foe in all our strife,

And preach thee, too, as love knows how,

By saving word and faithful life.

Refrain: Faith of our fathers, holy faith,

We will be true to thee till death.

The faith of our fathers, also known as faith of our martyrs, is enduring faith, enabling faith and eternal faith. Their faith granted them freedom of heart and conscience, while they were chained in prison cells. I am not chained in a prison cell as my fathers were, because of their stubborn faith in God and their unswerving commitment to faith in God. They suffered and died, rather than denounce their faith in Jesus Christ, their risen Lord, Master and King, who gave His Own Life for them.  The faith of our fathers, or the faith of our martyrs, is faith that is in you, because they gave it to you.

The most precious and priceless gift that they left with you, the eternal and blessed legacy which they bequeathed to you, is not life, first and foremost. It is faith. You were conceived in faith, birthed in faith, blessed in faith, baptized in faith and bred in faith. You can be given life, by your parents, but that life will be lost, a travesty of life, if there was no blood. In other words, without the blood, there is no life, just pure, unadulterated death. The same is true of faith. To receive life from our parents and not faith, is to be as one dead, cast away to a life of eternal death. How can this be? Why is this so? It is so because the one and only thing that pleases God, is faith. It is not your life that pleases the Father in heaven, but faith.

Without faith it is impossible to please God.