After a heavy rainfall earlier this month, many people put furniture and other things that had been damaged on the roadside. This week, Karen and I saw a house that has been lifted up on beams, exposing the foundation. We don’t know if this was done because of storm-related damage or to make other changes, but seeing this reminded me of the hymn “How Firm a Foundation.” In looking at a few websites to find when this hymn was written, I thought that I would learn who wrote it. I was surprised that the author’s name is not given in the sites that I found.

According to this website – https://www.hymncharts.com/2023/08/27/the-story-behind-how-firm-a-foundation/ – “How Firm a Foundation first reached the public when John Rippon – an influential English minister who pastored Carter Lane Baptist Church in London – published A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors in 1787. This collection featured a variety of hymns that Rippon found to be especially powerful, which turned out to be true as the collection quickly rose in popularity … Though the author was unknown, the hymn survived through its great message. It was especially popular with men who felt the weight of the world on their shoulders, and many leaders in America chose it as their favorite hymn. Andrew Jackson requested it be sung at his deathbed, and Robert E. Lee and Theodore Roosevelt both requested it be sung at their funerals. During the American Civil War, both Northern and Southern soldiers could be heard singing it; a testament to how God bridges the gap between all men.”

If you are not familiar with this historic hymn, I would urge you to check it out on the Internet. If you are looking for a book to read, I would recommend “The Heart of a Tender Warrior” by Stu Weber. The author shares many insights from life experiences and the Word of God. He recalls how he felt after he left Idaho to go to college in Illinois: “I wanted nothing more than to come home. I dreamed of it. Longed for it. Framed a thousand valid reasons for bagging school and heading west. But for reasons I couldn’t even articulate at the time, I stayed with it.

At last, after months of numbing endurance, I arrived in home country. As I stepped off the train, Dad emerged from the crowd and shook my hand, I’ll never forget what he said: ‘Son, you have something no one can ever take away from you. It’s on the inside. You stuck it out. You’ve done some growing up.’

He was right. People, events, evil schemes, disasters and catastrophes can take things away from you. Things on the outside. But no one can ever take away what’s on the inside – heart, soul, character. A man might throw it away, but no one can ever take it away.”

Weber continues: “What I’m talking about is something longer and stronger than patience. Shining through the darkness of trials and hardships and every difficult circumstance imaginable is what I believe to be a man’s greatest strength. His highest attribute. I call it staying power.”

Before citing the exhortation by James that is in the “Scripture for the weekend” below, Weber writes: “In a letter to scattered and suffering Christians, James tagged that same quality endurance. A literal rendering yields the phrase staying under.”

Weber writes: “Understand that the heart of staying power is sacrifice – giving oneself up for the good of another. For the ultimate example of staying power, our eyes have only to lock in on the Lord Jesus Christ. When He could have turned away from the cross, He stayed on course, setting His face like flint, all the way to Calvary. When He could have come down from the cross and sidestepped the suffering, He stayed. When he could have summoned armies of angels to deliver Him and called down divine air strikes on His adversaries, He stayed. He persevered and ‘stayed under’ all the way until that moment came when He could cry out, ‘It is finished!’”

Many, if not all of us, are going through things that are challenging and might cause us to give up, if we don’t ask the Lord to help us. May we rest in Him, knowing that He has promised to never leave us.

Scripture for the weekend: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4 (NASB)

Thought for the weekend: “Perfect means to be fully and completely developed or mature. Complete refers to being whole. Without trials, Christians cannot develop to maturity or wholenesss.” – Dr. David Jeremiah (from his Study Bible)

Steve