There’s a powerful lesson we can learn from the life and story of Abraham. The story starts with a promise, continues with much pain, grows with unshakable faith, and ends with the fulfillment of God’s spoken word.
Romans 4:17-18 declares;
We call Abraham “father” not because he got God’s attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. God saying to Abraham, “I set you up as father of many peoples.”
Here we see God plant the promise inside of Abraham’s soul. This biblical hero was first named father and then became a father. The promise was fulfilled because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do, but on what God said He would do. God himself said to Abraham, you are going to have a big family. Abraham did not focus on his own impotence and say, it’s hopeless. He plunged into the promise and came up strong.
Romans 4: 20 states;
Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God. Being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why it was credited to him as righteousness.
This is why the fulfillment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then
simply embracing him and what he does. Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right. But it’s not just Abraham, it’s also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe on the one who brought Jesus to life when conditions were equally hopeless.
After my daughter was born someone wrote me a handwritten letter prophesying that I would have more children. Two years later I got pregnant. My life seemed to be on course and going in the right direction. I was so excited at the promise of another child. My excitement and joy turned to grief and pain when I later lost the baby. I had God’s promise in one hand and my grief in the other. My life had all of a sudden gone in the complete opposite direction of what God had declared earlier. In the midst of my grief I got that letter out and declared that God’s promises were true. I clung to that. For one year I declared I don’t understand, but I choose to trust. I told myself either God is or He isn’t. I chose to believe that He is. I struggled with the disappointment and heartbreak of infertility for one year following the loss of my baby.
However, my story didn’t end there. After much heartache and pain God scooped up my ashes of grief and created beauty inside me. I became pregnant with my twin boys one year after being covered in grief. One child never replaces another in a mother’s heart. However, God’s written prophecy did come alive. Trust me this was not my way, but it was God’s way. It was not the easy road, but it was the road we traveled on to get to the promise.
Dare to trust God to do what only He can do. Have courage to believe what God says. Hold on to His promises with unwavering faith. Wait patiently for the fulfillment of God’s promise. Let God raise the dead areas of your heart back to life. The fulfillment of His promises depends on your belief. Dare to believe!
