Welcome

With grateful hearts, we share our thoughts on redemption through Jesus Christ and His saving blood and what it looks like in our daily walk.

We gladly welcome your comments and input.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AND since we hold our conservative values dear, we might have a thing or two to say about politics... and we can almost guarantee it won't be politically correct.



Friday, January 30, 2009

How Convinced Are You?

Imagine for a minute you are a man 100 years old and your wife has never been able to have children (Rom. 4:18). Somehow along the way God has gotten your attention and declared to you that you were going to be the father of a great nation (Gen 12: 2). As a matter of fact, God said, “Your descendants will be as numerous as the stars.”

Abraham was a such a man and Abraham believed Him (Rom. 4:18).

What is it that brings glory to God? Faith. Faith and believe are interchangeable terms.

Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God (Rom. 4:20). He was absolutely convinced that God was able to do anything He promised (v. 21).

And because of that kind of faith… God declared him to be righteous (v.22).

There is only one God, and there is only one way of being accepted by Him. He makes people right with Himself only by faith (Rom. 3:30).

Is there a promise in the Bible you know God has declared to you but you haven’t seen it come to pass yet? Are there dreams and desires in your heart God has shown you but you haven’t quite been able to imagine them to be true for you?

We can take a lesson from Abraham and put all of our trust in God who brings the dead back to life and who brings into existence what didn’t exist before (Rom. 4:17).

Our part is to believe without wavering. God’s part is to make it happen.

2 comments:

gigi said...

a great teacher i sat under in the past, once said "you can have faith in your heart with doubt in your head" (paraphrase)

most people think to 'believe' means you are totally convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt. but that is not so.
in your quotes given in this post, we see that abraham's belief was based on God's Word (promise). abraham did not waver from believing what God 'said', and in this process of remaining steadfast to the outcome, his faith grew and became strong.
maybe that is why it took 25 years for the fulfillment of that promise. we lose our grasp on the promise, because our faith weakens due to doubt, and we let go. most people who are 'believers' will say that they know God can do anything, but they think He is going to do it without any action on their part.
Heb. 6:13,14 tells us "for when God made a promise to abraham, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, He swore by Himself, saying, 'surely i will bless you and multiply you.' and thus abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise."
Heb. 11:6 reminds us also, "and without faith it is impossible to please Him (God). for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek him."
faith is acting upon God's word - taking it as the final authority of what we believe - and being tenacious to let that govern the outcome. don't let your thoughts (doubts) negate your unwavering hold on what has been promised you by God's word. bring those doubts into submission to the promises by meditating continuously on the word of God - then step out on the water, and govern your steps according to the spoken word. that is the action of your faith that confirms your belief and brings about the fulfillment of the promises.

Meems said...

Gigi,
The scriptures you point out are some of my favorites. I've heard so many people say they believe God "can" do anything but they don't necessarily believe He will do it for "them".

Abraham believed what God said about him and he believed it was meant "for him". He also made the mistake at one point of taking matters into his own hands and trying to "make the promise happen" by having a child with Hagar. Oops. Not the kind of action that should have coincided with his faith. That's for a whole other post. LOL