A Story of Faith Through the Fires of Life

By F. D. Adkins

Today, I want to tell you about my grandmother. She passed away about twenty-five years ago, but I have a lot of vivid memories of her. And the majority of those memories revolve around her faith. In my earliest memories, I was about five years old. I would stay a few hours at a time with my grandparents while my mom worked or ran errands, and in order to go to the bathroom, I had to walk through the bedroom. I never recollect walking through that bedroom, and not seeing my grandmother’s Bible laying open on her bed. In later memories, my mother and I lived with my grandmother for a bit. I think I was around twelve years old. And during that time, my grandmother was either listening to Christian radio, watching a message on a Christian network on television, or talking about God, And, again, I never remember seeing her Bible closed.

Now that I am older, I have often thought about my grandmother and the tough life that she endured. And I have often asked myself how she coped. I can’t imagine the amount of loss she suffered, but I was a witness to her enormous faith. Hebrews 11:1 defines faith. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (KJV). And then Paul talks about the shield of faith as part of the armor of God in Ephesians 6:16. “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (KJV).

There is no denying the enemy was wreaking havoc all around my grandmother as she went from enduring an abusive relationship early in her life to losing a son to suicide to, later on, losing a husband to suicide, and then on to another son spending time incarcerated because of alcoholism. While I cannot fathom as a wife and mother having to face any one of these things, she had to cope with them all. So, as I ask myself how she did it, I know it had to be her shield of faith, “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 KJV). My grandmother believed with her whole heart that Jesus died for her sins and that this life was temporary. And that one day, He would wipe away her tears, and there would be no more pain.

Bible Verse For This Week:

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:4 KJV.