Morning Prayer

Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-191 Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of realities that are unseen.2 It is for their faith that our ancestors are acknowledged.8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed the call to set out for a country that was the inheritance given to him and his descendants, and that he set out without knowing where he was going.9 By faith he sojourned in the Promised Land as though it were not his, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.10 He looked forward to the well-founded city, designed and built by God.11 It was equally by faith that Sarah, in spite of being past the age, was made able to conceive, because she believed that he who had made the promise was faithful to it.12 Because of this, there came from one man, and one who already had the mark of death on him, descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore which cannot be counted.13 All these died in faith, before receiving any of the things that had been promised, but they saw them in the far distance and welcomed them, recognising that they were only strangers and nomads on earth.14 People who use such terms about themselves make it quite plain that they are in search of a homeland.15 If they had meant the country they came from, they would have had the opportunity to return to it;16 but in fact they were longing for a better homeland, their heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, since he has founded the city for them.17 It was by faith that Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac. He offered to sacrifice his only son even though he had yet to receive what had been promised,18 and he had been told: Isaac is the one through whom your name will be carried on.19 He was confident that God had the power even to raise the dead; and so, figuratively speaking, he was given back Isaac from the dead.