Household Faith

In this post I want to explore "household faith".  It is something that I feel I would like to understand more fully. If anyone reading this post has some understanding or further insights of this topic I invite you to leave your thoughts in the comment section.
Recently I wrote a post about my Dad's final message to our family where he quoted Joshua 24:15 where it says .. choose you this day whom ye will serve; ...and.... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.  Link to that post here  Dad's Final Message to the Family   I believe coming to faith is an individual personal experience but I am also wondering if it is possible for a father or the parents of the household to claim the family for the Lord and that somehow it would put a hedge of protection around the family that Satan then would not be able to easily penetrate? Another way of saying it, would be to have a "roof" of protection over the entire family. I think it is very possible that this is true but perhaps many times not something that we see happening in our families today. God has placed responsibility on the shoulders of the parents and even more solidly on the shoulder of the father in the home as to what happens in a household. God has given each of us responsibility and requires us to do our part in the family unit.
As I look in my Bible and ponder what it says, I think there must be something there - the idea of "household" faith. Please allow me to quote some passages :

(1)  The first one is in Genesis 48: 5-6 where Jacob claims the two sons of Joseph namely Ephraim and Manasseh as his own sons to be in the clan of 12. -Genesis 48: 5-6 says :
 And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.
  And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance.

(2)  In John 4 Jesus heals a nobleman's son and after the healing it says in verse 53:  So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.

(3)  Acts 10 describes a man by the name of Cornelius, a centurian of the Italian band and it says in verse 2 that he was  ^"A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway."

(4)  Acts 16 tells of a woman named Lydia whose heart the Lord touched and in verse 15 it says : And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.

(5)  In the latter part of Acts 16, Paul and Silas land up in prison. There in prison they pray and sing praises to God and the other prisoners hear them. Then when the prison doors are opened up by an earthquake, the jailor is frightened and about to kill himself, but Paul and Silas lead him to the Lord to salvation and in verses 33 and 34 it says:
 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

(6)  And one final example would be in Acts 18:8 where a man named Crispus is saved: And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.

What a wonderful blessing indeed to have an entire household saved and living for the LORD!
Again I would invite comments if anyone out there has some insights into the topic of "household faith".

Exercising Faith - Hannah

Faith that Believes God for Answers

Hebrews 11: 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

What is faith? Faith is believing God - that He will provide all that is needed for a good result in our circumstances even when it looks impossible to the human eye. The good result we are looking for is God's will for us above anything that we want for ourselves. We know that He sees the end from the begining and in reality God alone knows what would be the best outcome to our situation.
Hebrews 11 is often called the heroes of faith chapter as it lists many of the great men and women in the Bible who displayed extra ordinary faith in their life circumstances. In this Bible study I want to look at what the word faith means in a little more depth and then I want to look at the story of Hannah and see her faith in her situation.

Faith - Hebrews 1:1 gives us the Biblical definition of faith. It says - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Faith is the assurance in our heart that God will do what He says He will do - we are convinced by the truth of His Word in the Bible. When we are exercising our faith we are not trusting in ourselves - no, we place our trust in the One who answers prayer and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. In order to please God we must believe that He exists, that He is real, that He is concerned with our needs and our situation. We must believe that He will reward those who diligently seek Him. We must also realize that the Lord does not hear our prayers while our hearts are filled with sin.
Psalm 66: 18-19 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.
Faith is to believe and trust in Jesus as He is presented in the Scriptures. He is the only begotten Son of God. He died on the cross for our sin to redeem us to God. He was buried and rose again on the third day.

Hannah - Now let us look us the faith of Hannah from 1 Sammuel. The story of Hannah is that she was married to Elkanah. Now Elkanah loved Hannah very much but he also had a second wife name Peninnah. Now Penninah was able to bear children but Hannah had no children. There was nothing that Hannah wanted more in all her life than to have a child. As though the stress of being barren was not enough, Peninnah would make fun of Hannah, provoke her and irritate her because of her barren womb to the point that Hannah was brought to tears and could not even eat. So Hannah was in great distress.
 So what did Hannah do about her problems? She brought her situation before the Lord in prayer. She wept before the Lord as she poured out her heart before Him. 1 Sammuel 1: 10 - 13 describes her prayer:
And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.
¹¹ And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.
¹² And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth.
¹³ Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard:

Sometimes we may wonder if it is okay or even wise to pray alone. We may have been told that we should pray in a group or that we should first seek the advice of other people before we pray. But that is not what Hannah did.  She prayed alone and no other person really knew the depths of the burden on her heart but she poured it out before the Lord.
What did Hannah do after she prayed? The Bible says that she went on her way, she was no longer sad and she was able to eat and the best part is she worshipped the Lord! 1 Sammuel 1: 18-19  So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. ¹⁹ And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the Lord, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: We know that Hannah had faith because it clearly says that she was no longer sad. She was exercising faith in God that He had indeed seen her situation, heard her prayer and God would take action on her behalf. This is so beautiful - I just love it!!
What happened next? Hannah went home with Elkannah and life continued. And God did not forget about Hannah! ( he never forgets His own). Hannah was able to become pregnant and God gave a baby boy to Hannah and Elkannah exactly as Hannah had prayed!
1 Sammuel 1: 19-20 and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the Lord remembered her.
²⁰ Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord.

As Christians, we serve the very same God as Hannah does in this study. He loves and cares for His own. He knows our situation.
 It is important that we go to the Lord in prayer and humbly pour out our hearts before him. After we have entrusted ourselves into His care, we can go about our daily tasks with joy because we have faith to believe that God will do what is the best for us in our situation. We worship and praise the Lord even before our situation changes and we must remember to continue to give Him the honor and praise as well once we have seen the answer to our prayers come to take place.