For All the Saints
“You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
Ephesians 2:19-20 (NASB)
I once visited the majestic Salisbury Cathedral. I slowly wheeled through the cloisters, feeling the history in every stone. I paused at a sepulcher upon which was carved the supine figure of a Crusader, complete with the familiar shield and helmet. The inscription indicated he was the son of a land baron and had died in the Holy Lands in 1250. I shook my head, amazed and pleased. Amazed that I was sitting beside the gravesite of a man from the thirteenth century…and pleased that he was most likely my brother in Christ.
An old hymn swelled my heart and I broke into song, my voice filling the cloisters with these words so apropos for today, All Saints’ Day:
For all the saints who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
And win with them the victor’s crown of gold:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Our Savior has inspired generations of believers who have fought, persevered, prayed, suffered, and passed on to glory. We stand on their shoulders. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Heb. 12:1).
Millions of believers are resting as your “church triumphant,” Lord; help me to be true to you and to their example.
Pressing On: How to Lean on Christ through Suffering
After more than 55 years living with quadriplegia and chronic pain, Joni Eareckson Tada knows what it means to “press on” through suffering. Joni encourages you to join her in living out Philippians 3:14: “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
