Faith’s Perdurance

I’m waiting for the sun to shine,
While all is dismal gray below.
The numbing cold is anodyne,
The turbid sky is thick with snow.

Remembering the warmth of Spring,
I clench my elbows to my sides.
But wistful longing cannot bring,
In fact, it only ever chides.

It’s faith that has the pow’r to grasp,
The promises of grace secure,
And in the future Summer bask,
While Winter’s harshest winds endure.

---

What a most precious gift, the gift of faith, and how misunderstood. Were it something we could choose to muster on our own, it would first of all be worthless, as are all of man’s sole endeavors, and secondly, it would not be considered a gift.

By contrast, the gift of faith, true biblical faith, is given to men by the grace of God alone, through the Holy Spirit alone, and has the Lord Jesus Christ alone for its object. This is the faith whose hope is a certainty and whose eye sees past the veil that separates earth from heaven and gazes upon the One who sits upon the throne at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

This is the faith that has summoned healing, and has granted martyrs the courage to face the flames. This is the faith that has parted the sea, and leveled city walls with a shout. This is the faith that has shut the mouths of lions, and likewise been torn apart by lions rather than renounce the object of its affections. This is the faith that has withered trees, routed armies, raised the dead, and given sight to the blind.

This is the faith that cleanses the heart as it looks upon the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and so obtains forgiveness unto eternal life. And this is the faith by which we can rejoice even in our sufferings, as we sojourn in exile, knowing that “this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (1 Corinthians 4:17-18)

© Craig Sabin 2021 All rights reserved