N: Nevertheless

Have you ever hunted for a verse you were just sure existed? I spent the morning trying to find a verse that I was sure used the word “nevertheless” since today’s letter is N. In my mind, I remember a woman retelling the story of the three Hebrew men, Shad, Mesch, and Ben and their conversation just before being thrown into the fiery furnace. I remember her describing them and how they told Neb that they knew God could save them, but even if he didn’t “nevertheless” they would trust him. The word is just not there---but the essence is!

So I still want to consider “nevertheless faith.” It’s the kind of faith that holds strong when everything else gives way, especially when you have asked, nay pleaded, with God to make things go a different way. It’s the kind of faith that makes no sense to anyone else, especially not to unbelievers. It is childlike, but not naïve. It is trusting, but not foolish. Here’s how the hymn writer saw it:
1. Oh, for a faith that will not shrink
Tho' pressed by many a foe;
That will not tremble on the brink
Of poverty or woe;

2. That will not murmur nor complain
Beneath the chast'ning rod,
But in the hour of grief or pain
Can lean upon its God;

3. A faith that shines more bright and clear
When tempests rage without;
That, when in danger, knows no fear,
In darkness feels no doubt;

4. That bears unmoved the world's dread frown
Nor heeds its scornful smile;
That sin's wild ocean cannot drown
Nor Satan's arts beguile;

5. A faith that keeps the narrow way
Till life's last spark is fled
And with a pure and heavenly ray
Lights up the dying bed.

6. Lord give us such a faith as this;
And then, whate'er may come,
We'll taste e'en now the hallowed bliss
Of an eternal home.