Sharing Our Faith and Hopes


Then they that feared the Lord spake often one with another.--Mal. 3: 16.

These were a small remnant of elect souls who held fast to belief in God in a day of unbelief. The majority were saying, It is vain to serve God, they that work wickedness are built up (vv. 14-15).

It was a dark and difficult time for these few remaining faithful souls. They were made to feel their need of one another, and were drawn together in a close fellowship. In that fellowship, speaking often one with another of their faith and hopes, they found strength and courage to face up to a world full of menace and full of contradictions to their faith, or what appeared to be so.

If ever there was a time when believers in God needed one another, and stood in need of fellowship one with another, that time is now.

Like that little remnant in Malachi's time, only more terrifyingly so, we are living in a world full of menace--full of things which seem to contradict our faith. To face up to this world, to remain confident and steadfast in the face of the seeming denials of our faith, we need all the encouragement and help we can get from one another.

The answer to this need lies in group fellowship, a little group here and a little group there, groups of young people, groups of neighbors, groups of business people--groups coming together for fellowship in prayer and sharing experiences with one another, speaking one with another of their faith and hopes.

Most important of all is the fellowship of the church. Here is to be found the most blessed and helpful of all fellowships. Within that fellowship, “We share our mutual woes, our mutual burdens bear; and often for each other flows the sympathizing tear . . . Before our Father's throne, we pour our ardent prayers; our fears, our hopes, our aims are one, our comforts and our cares. We lift our voices and sing with warm, grateful hearts, Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love.”

Never have we more needed Christian fellowship. In this time of darkness, it is most urgent that we share with one another our faith and hopes.