Faith Examples

Isaiah 50: 4-9

4 The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. 5 The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back. 6 I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. 7 Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. 8 He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me! 9 It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me. Who is he that will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up.

Too often I am rebellious. Too often I do draw back. Too often I do hide my face from the presence of those who would mock your name in word or in deed. Too often I run from my accuser. There are some times when I realize I am more than what I have become. The son-ship is mine for the asking. Do I dare step out in faith and grasp it?

As I write this devotion, I remember some older saints of a church where I served as a professional minister whose faith was an example to my own: Fern Boswell, whose Christian commitment had her tottering in to a senior adult bible study with a walker less than a month before her passing; Bea Tanner, whose steadfast faith allowed her to teach for over 40 years; Marie Benton, whose tireless devotion to the poor always seemed to outlast her 90+ year-old body; Rex and Pearl Chambers, who live with integrity and share much love. To see them arrive week after week after week despite their physical ailments and to know that the reason the offering was so high on the first Sunday of each month was because the senior adults had just received their checks and were tithing their ten percent. I always felt like I had many parents and grandparents in that church. But more than that, I always had plenty of Christian examples who lived these verses of rising with the Lord day after day.

As I grow older I realize that other people see my example. I need to recommit my life to wake with the Lord “morning by morning.” I will not be rebellious. I must “not hide my face from mocking and spitting.” I steadfastly look to the future. I will remember, “He who vindicates me is near…. It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me.”

A Faithful Response: Visit a home-bound member of your church community.

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