I WILL NEVER LOOK AT THE NIGHT SKY THE SAME AGAIN

In studying the book of Romans, specifically chapter 4, a rather huge revelation was made clear to me; it starts with understanding just how great Abraham’s faith was. Abraham was about 100 years old when God promised to him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith. (Genesis 15:6) Later in Genesis 17, Abraham’s name changes and he is told he will have countless descendants and be the father of many nations.

Here is this guy who is 100 years old and his wife who is about 90 years old and the God of the universe is telling him that he will have a son and countless descendants. They have just lived through many years of being barren and have undoubtedly started to believe that having children was not going to happen. Now, I don’t know about menopause in those days but certainly it is very conceivable that Sarah had already gone through menopause and her body was not capable of producing an offspring. I think of my brief few years of secondary infertility and have a small idea of what it was that Sarah and Abraham must have felt. You feel hopeless but Abraham’s faith is greater than this hopelessness.

Abraham believes God when he tells him he is going to have a son, an heir and descendants numerous as the stars. Despite their very old age and the years of living with being barren; despite the fact that Sarah's body is very likely beyond capable of having a baby. Abraham believes what the Lord tells him is true and he has faith that God is faithful in his promise to him. 

But the real revelation is that I am one of those stars. My faith in Jesus has made me righteous in the presence of our holy God. Abraham is the father of faith. He demonstrated to us what faith is, preparing us to believe in Jesus. Our faith in Jesus makes us a part of Abraham’s descendants. We are one of those countless stars in the sky. 

Abraham’s descendants will continue to grow as each new believer accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior by faith alone. New stars are being made each day that a new believer is born again. We are part of a rather ginormous family; that is the part that is so awesome.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 102

The fruits of the Holy Spirit won’t be within us without first having faith. Faith is the beginning point that we have to go back to over and over again. Faith can be on shaky ground or as is told in the bible seeds in rocky soil. We must be proclaiming our faith through our words and actions everyday and especially in our prayers. Abraham had so much faith in God that when God told him to move his family 800 miles to another country, he did it and when he told him to sacrifice his only son Isaac, he did it but thankfully God stopped him before Isaac was killed and gave him a lamb to sacrifice instead. Jesus displays faith and obedience on an unfathomable scale. He came from his home in heaven, from the very presence of God to become a man on earth.  Why did he seek his alone time with God? He missed him. He missed being in his very presence but he did what God asked of him. I have had a small glimpse of what it must have been like for Jesus to have left the presence of God to be in this world. When I was in the hospital back in 2003 for 4 ½ weeks hoping to keep Faith from being born to early. Those weeks were filled with Spring snow storm, one after another. The snow kept many of my friends from coming to visit me. I was mostly alone in my room day in and day out. Actually, I wasn’t alone. I was communing with God as I had never done before. Without being able to even get out of bed, I was in a situation where all I could do was pray to God, read the bible and think of Him. Many months after this experience, I realized I was suffering from grief from the loss of that extreme closeness I felt with God during my stay in the hospital. How Jesus must have grieved as well! It puts a different perspective on what Jesus did for us. He came from his home down here to be with us in our fallen world surrounded by sin. How willing would you be to leaving your home and everything you have there to follow God and do his will? Faith is a life-long pursuit. Keep at it so those fruits can ripen within.

Hebrews 11:8 By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.