Faith

Hebrews 11 has often been referenced as the Hall of Faith chapter or the Hall of Fame for faith in the Bible. Recently I ran across a list of "P" words for characters of faith. I have faith that you will find it worth my sharing as you ponder these who lived at various levels of faithfulness.

• Abel endured a PAINFUL faith. His obedience to God led to his being clubbed to death in the fields by his brother Cain.
• Cain possessed only a PARTIAL faith. He did what God commanded but only halfway and halfheartedly.
• Noah displayed a PRACTICAL faith. He built the Ark and gathered animals all the while PREACHING to his neighbors about their imPENDING doom and God's PERFECT love.
• Abraham gained a PROMISED faith as he received God's guarantee that his three-fold blessing would include his seed, land, and nations.
• Enoch was blessed with a PURE faith as he walked with God and was taken to heaven...we might say PREMATURELY.
• Isaac used a PRUDENT faith to gain his birthright, build a family in a foreign country, and become reconciled to his brother.
• Jacob developed a PRECIOUS faith. From his deathbed he "blessed each of Joseph’s sons in turn, blessing them with God’s blessing, not his own—as he bowed worshipfully upon his staff" (Hebrews 11:21, MSG).
• Joseph clung to a PATIENT faith as he waited for various lengths of time for deliverance from bondage and slavery from a PIT and a PRISON.
• Gideon led with a PRAYERFUL faith as he defeated the Midianites though outnumbered 450 to 1.
• David meditated with a PASSIONATE faith as he wrote and sang his PSALMS becoming a man after God's own heart and an imPERFECT king.
• Samson was PROTECTED from all but his lustful self by his POWERFUL faith that eventually allowed him to destroy the enemy PHILISTINES.

Faith is a foundation stone of any spiritual relationship with God and Jesus. 

photo by Zac Durant on unsplash.com

Peter encourages us in this way: "So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus" (2 Peter 1:5-8, MSG). 

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