“All commended for their faith...” Heb. 11:39
Heavenly Father, the ongoing evil in Ukraine (and other parts of the world) have convinced me afresh of this: Life in Christ, under your sovereign rule, between the resurrection and return of Jesus, requires (1) A relationship with you only the Gospel can give us. (2) A trust in you as deep as the ocean of your grace. (3) A heart to accept both the mystery of your hidden ways, and the miraculous intervention of your mighty hand.
Because, as the writer of Hebrews stated, sometimes your people “through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised.” They “shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword… routed foreign armies… women received back their dead, raised to life again” (Heb.11:32-35a).
Other times, they “were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.”
And here’s the mystery as big as the Gospel is good: “These were ALL commended for their faith…” Heb.11:35b-39). All commended for their faith—those who shut lions’ mouths, and those who entered heaven by stoning.
Father never let us forget: Faith unites us to Jesus, who is working in all things for your glory and our good, not to formulas for self-preservation. We are ready for this war to be over and for Jesus to return. But until then, grant us a growing measure of (1), (2), (3) listed above. We love you, Father. We would trust you more. So Very Amen.