Grandma Rogers Devotionals

By Mary “Grandma” Rogers

We are going to be talking about the word FAITH — but we are going to be talking about it in a slightly different way than ever before.  We all know what it is — we all know it is an essential part of our lives and we all realize how hard life could be without it.  There are five letters in the word FAITH, as you know, so today we will begin with the first letter — F.

FATHER….  We pray the Lord’s prayer to God, our “Father in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name.”  In so doing, we are exercising a great faith — we are having faith that He is there and listening and that He cares.  When we ask for our daily bread, we are having the faith that He will provide, — and so He will.

Going on in the Lord’s prayer, the next sentence brings us to another word beginning with the letter F — FORGIVE.  Isn’t it wonderful to have a Lord that forgives -and to know there is someone who loves us so much that He truly wants to forgive us of anything? We need only to ask and to have faith that He does just as He promises.

Let us just imagine how it was years ago when Jesus first began His ministry.  Here was a man, walking about the country-side — saying many things these people had never heard before — words of comfort, instruction and forgiveness.  At last, people had something to think about other than the circumstances of their lives.  Here was Someone who was offering hope, love, comfort;– and all they had to do was believe and have FAITH in what He was telling them.  Is it any wonder that so many were willing to drop their lives right where they were and obey His command to “Follow Me.”  The disciple, whose father had died, followed Him.  He was told to let the spiritually dead bury the dead.  The disciple knew Jesus was life, itself, and so he followed Him.

The disciples were told that, “The Son of Man had no place to lay his head.”  Yet, they had no FEAR.  His perfect love cast out their fear.  They believed in Him and placed their faith in Him; — and fear cannot exist in the presence of faith.

I once knew a little child whose joy and delight was to bounce around on a wagon full of hay, after his Daddy had brought it in from the field.  When he finished playing and was ready to get down to the ground, he simply stepped off the hay wagon and into his Daddy’s outstretched, waiting arms.  He had perfect faith that his Daddy would be there — waiting and watching.

In the same way, our Heavenly Father stands with waiting, outstretched arms.  He watches over us and knows we all step out into danger, and we’ll be needing Him.  He never FORSAKES us nor FORGETS us.  You can have faith in that.

Another way to think about faith is to think about the word FORWARD.  We can ask for confidence and faith to go forward, never fearful of new undertakings, but confident with our faith in Him.  We are also to go forth, and tell others about Him.  Some of us may not physically be able to do this because of jobs or many other things.  But, our prayers can always go forth as far as we wish to send them— into any life, home or situation where His love is needed.

I hope today that our exploration of the first letter in the word “FAITH” has helped in some small way to increase your own.  Next time we will talk about the second letter — A.

There is so much more I could say, — but, mainly, I want you to know when we FOLLOW Him, do our best to walk in His FOOTSTEPS, — FEAR not the day and its evils, go FORTH in our own way to serve Him,—- then He will not FORGET us nor FORSAKE us and FAITH for each day will be ours.

Let us pray…
Heavenly Father, thank you for the faith we have and thank you for daily increasing it in our lives.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

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Tags: Faith, Father, Fear, Follow, Forgive, Forward
Filed under: Devotionals