Faith Fullness: How Generational Faith and Trust in God Shape Our Future

Faith Fullness

By Brenette Wilder

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ─ Hebrews 11:1 NASB

I always enjoy stories that come from people that actually lived them. Whether the narratives come from personal knowledge or passed down by family guardians, these accounts become a historical archive of treasures. They are not the type of treasures that rust or spoil. They are life giving faith stories that remind us that if God did it for them, He can surely do it for me.

These treasures have the potential to grow our faith each time they are read. Take the story of my husband's father, Cain, his faith story started in the early 1900's while working in the cotton fields. From sun rise to evening, cotton picking became his teacher. Under the cover of the hot scorching sun, he learned the value of hard work. Every day in the company of other field workers he developed people skills, and dreamed about a day when he would have his own business.

He grew up in a farming family with limited education, but he always said, "he had common sense". And wouldn't you know it; with his fun going common sense approach he stood out as if God illuminated his workmanship. Working together with his wife, who was a teacher, their bank account slowly grew until owning a business, a grocery store and a clothes cleaning service, became feasible through faith in God and hard work.

Upon discussing this story with my husband, it struck a chord with me that God’s plans will stretch across historical boundaries to reach a prescribed goal. With this in mind, the story really started with one of his descendants who believed God for what he couldn’t see.

Beginning with Cain's great-grandfather, a slave during the early 1800's, who believed God for freedom, land ownership, and a prayer that his children would all accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. By faith, in 1880 God blessed him to own two hundred acres of land in the state of Arkansas as a freed man. Through that same faith, all of his children believed and confessed Jesus Christ as their Savior.

By faith, Cain’s grandfather, a God-fearing man, seeing the faithfulness of God to his father became a farmer. That same faith actively at work continued into his life also. Each summer his children and day-laborers would pick cotton that was sold to larger farmers which enabled him to save enough to become a local store owner.

And, although I can't trace the family’s story back any further, I can see a common act of faith threaded through generations that believed God against all odds.

Thankfully, they never stopped believing and trusted God to carry their prayers to completion. “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus. ─ Phil 1:6”

So, this is my prayer for you today. I pray that this short story will inspire you to never stop praying by faith. Don’t let anything get in the way of you believing. God is listening and He is able to do all things. Keep your eyes on God’s Son, Jesus, who is in the place of honor, right alongside God, because He didn’t stop. Use him as your example. His eyes were fixed on your salvation and He “…put his love on the line for us (you) by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we (you) were of no use whatever to him ─ Romans 5:8 MSG.”

Eventually, God will bring His answer into full view, and when He does, grab hold of it with the same faith that blessed my husband's great-great grandfather and several generations.

Scriptures to reflect on:

“God wasn’t attracted to you and didn’t choose you because you were big and important—the fact is, there was almost nothing to you. He did it out of sheer love, keeping the promise he made to your ancestors. God stepped in and mightily bought you back out of that world of slavery, freed you from the iron grip of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know this: God, your God, is God indeed, a God you can depend upon. He keeps his covenant of loyal love with those who love him and observe his commandments for a thousand generations …, Dt 7:7-10 MSG.

“Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours ─ Heb. 11:39-40 MSG.”

Continue Fishing with

-Net.

Brenette Wilder Author of Netted Together