Knots Of Faith

Knots of Faith

I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith in him is being talked about all over the world.

Romans 1:8

Every other week the Amish hold worship services. Instead of meeting in a church building, they take turns hosting worship in their homes. They gather to hear God’s Word and to worship, and they sing songs without instruments—twenty, fifty, or even a hundred voices praising God together, just as their forebears have done for hundreds of years. The songs are sung slowly, with each syllable stressed, the joined voices swirling around the women’s prayer kapps and the men’s bare heads.

Amish hymns are drawn from a collection called the Ausbund, first published in 1583 and the oldest Christian songbook in continuous use. At the core of the Ausbund are fifty-one songs written by Anabaptists imprisoned in the Passau (Germany) castle dungeon between 1535 and 1540 for their beliefs. These hymns embody the prayers of those prisoners. What peace the Amish must draw from these hymns, knowing their ancestors faced harsh challenges yet found a way to set their prayers to song.

The one who is not faithful in the smallest thing,

and who still seeks his own good which his heart desires—

how can he be trusted with a charge over heavenly things?

Let us keep our eyes on love!

Ausbund 119:14

Like the Amish, we, too, can draw strength from worshiping with other Christians and from realizing that the God who cares for us is the same God who has strengthened and uplifted believers through all the moments in history. Each of us has a place in passing on the praise. May we be faithful to do our part.

Heavenly Father, how thankful I am for the men and women who’ve gone before me, who’ve faced hardships and still lifted their prayers to You through songs of worship. May my life become a knot on a thread of faith that stretches before my life and beyond it. Amen.