How often do we question or complain to God about our way of thinking about His eternal, “for our good” will? Here, Abram thinks because he doesn’t have a son, all of God’s blessings and promises are for nothing. How foolish he was. I totally understand his viewpoint (he didn’t have the Bible to read about himself; ), but his vision isn’t God’s viewpoint. He was witnessing the scene from a limited view point. If God makes a promise, He keeps it. It will come true. It just might not be in our timeframe. Abram is just like us, weak, fragile, and insecure. His journey, walking with God, starts out a little shaky, then slowly starts to develop. Of course he has his “I’m a bonehead” moments (as do we all), but that’s how the process of sanctification works. You don’t repent and receive God’s grace and “poof” you’re perfect, ready for Heaven. It’s a process, and for some it takes a long, long time, with many bumps in the road. Faith is like the educational process. You are taught a concept, practice or experience that concept, then somewhere along the way you “get it”. It may be during that year of school or years after while performing a job or participating in an event that makes the light bulb go off. The main point about faith is this: it isn’t how great your faith is, it’s acting on what little faith you have. That might mean “doing” and the “understanding” comes later. “The just shall walk by faith”. I definitely struggle with that one. But the amount of faith you have isn’t the point. Didn’t Jesus say, “if you have the faith of a mustard seed...” you could move mountains (Matt 17:20)? Faith is only as good as the object in which it is placed. So you see, the amount isn’t the limiting factor. What does matter is where you’re putting it. We all have faith. We use it every day. When we drive our cars we put faith in other drivers on the road, believing they will stay on their side of the road and obey all traffic laws in order to prevent an accident. We trust the chairs we sit on not to break. We trust the airline pilots to fly us safely to our destinations. We trust our doctors and pharmacists with the right medications to make us well. Some of us even place our faith in the weatherman on tv, planning our day, what to wear, or bring to an outing, based on his “prediction”. God is worthy. As a matter of fact, He’s the only One worthy of our faith, and our faith doesn’t add to or take away any of God’s power or lesson His role in our lives. So the next time you start to question “why” or think “what good is this”, remember Abram. His journey is the solid foundation and great example of what happens when you trust God.
1 Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”2 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all Your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since You’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. 3 You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”4 Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” 5 Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”6 And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.
Genesis 15:1-6
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