Faith-Filled Friday @ Coffee Hour with Chicklit Power

Thanks for joining me for our Faith-Filled Friday! I am looking forward to discovering things from the Hall of Faith that strengthen your faith and mine. Let’s grab our coffee and our faith and begin.

We are finally at the actual recorded Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11! Let me tell you, I hope you are hungry! Grab a big plate and some good utensils to feast with because there is a lot of meat here! I’m sure we’ll find our vegetables and lots of sweetness along the way as well. 

So the very first portion/verse says that “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” And what’s the difference between faith and hope? Hope is innate while faith is His gift to us upon confessing that we are a sinner in need of a savior! Even an atheist has an inclination toward hoping for certain things.

Have you ever witnessed hope come to life in the midst of a tragedy? Recently, a friend of mine who is a sweet sister in the Lord experienced tragedy in her family and it involved her nephew. He had been involved in a serious car accident that left him with extensive brain damage. Death was knocking on his door. While he lay in a coma, many of his family members surrounded him, cemented by his bedside with hope. I don’t know how many or who of those in his family were at that moment in their lives without a relationship with Christ, but when this young man showed signs of actually feeling pain, their hope was renewed that maybe, just maybe death would leave and life would remain intact.

Their hope turned them toward the possibility of faith in Christ. Were they searching more for a miracle than they were for the miracle maker? That’s not for you or me to ascertain; it was just a reminder to me that often, for a nonbeliever, hope stirs up our faith. And for those of us who have been walking with the Author of our Faith for awhile, the reverse is also true: Faith reminds us to hope and in “Whom” to hope!

What is an example of “the evidence of things not seen”? Well, in fact, every example in the Hall of Faith is unseen by us, but our faith accepts each example in the Hall of Faith as true. We know and understand that the common thread in the Hall of Faith is the Author of their faith.

But let’s narrow the lens to things not seen in this life, our here and now. The very first thing that comes to mind is redemption. Another is transformation. Redemption and transformation are not physical things that we can grasp with our physical eyes; but they are the evidence of things seen with the eyes of our heart.

As I shared in the beginning of this series, my faith wasn’t just born full-grown and adult-like. I didn’t have that miraculous introduction where I came to Jesus and immediately had no more junk and was free from myself! No, He’s taken me through an unpacking process, to and through some things to strengthen, refine and purify my faith. And all the while, He remained behind the scenes, unseen.

Just because I can’t physically see Him working, the eyes of my heart are opened to His working all things together for my good and His glory, thus fulfilling His promise: to build me up and not tear me down, to give me a future . . .

What about you; what is He doing for you behind the scenes that can’t be seen with your physical eyes but you know in your heart you see?

Join me next Friday for more of this faith-filled series!

Evinda

Nana Holds From Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power

Welcome to Coffee Hour and thanks so much for having coffee with me! Grab your coffee and come on in for more of this transparent series, Nana Holds! We have just a few hours before Bryden gets home and finds out his daddy won’t be coming home.

I think I understand what the term “auto pilot” means now because that’s what it felt like for the rest of the day. I did what I had to do and didn’t even remember doing it. It was like my body was there, but my mind and heart were looking up and waiting for the next instruction.

The funny thing is, through a series of silent instructions, more of the pieces of the painful puzzle of my step-son’s life appeared in the picture, bringing clarity which brought understanding. And though the pain was intense, especially for my husband, understanding went a long way in soothing it.
And while I did look for some eternal value immediately, I must confess I wasn’t happy. In fact, the more reality settled into my head about all the sacrificing required for this situation, the more I resembled Bryden in one of his fits, on my back, kicking and screaming. Oh, was I ever unlearned with it comes to not acting out of control despite my world feeling out of control!

Daddy Holds!

George came home and my heart broke for him. Not only was he in extreme emotional pain, but he was in a tremendous amount of physical pain as well. Stress has a way of doing that, pinching nerves, and manifesting itself in all kinds of hideous ways and by the time he had come home, he could barely move his head to the left because of a pinched nerve!

We had talked several times throughout the day, so he was aware of the many answers to the many unasked questions, but honestly, he was aging before my eyes. I tried to comfort him as best as I could, reminding him that God definitely had intervened in our son’s life, and the only way to go from this point was up, if he chose to do so. I felt in my gut then, and still do now, that God was going to use this tragedy for Bryce’s triumph in a way that only He could.


My hubby wasn’t able to see that right away though, or maybe he could, but it wasn’t at the forefront of his thoughts. No, his heart ached, longing to pull his son out of the murky waters he had put himself in and protect him from the ramifications from his own choices. Oh, did I ever feel his pain and I so wished I could take it  from him, but I have been through this before and I understand that while it is incredibly painful, that this is/was something we were going to have to walk through together and I was truly thankful he didn’t have to go through it alone.

Shortly after George came home, Suzanne brought Bryden home. It’s a blur, exactly what we did first, but I think we just played with him for a little while before dinner. I think I was still sort of on auto pilot. It wasn’t until we were sitting down for dinner that the question finally came, the one I had been anticipating and trying not to dread . . .

Join me tomorrow for more.

Evinda