it's the journey

it's the journey

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Faith of Our Fathers

Maybe it's all this talk of Springtime, the Resurrection and new beginnings, whatever the reason, Romans 4:17 has been SO much on my mind.  


As it is written: "I have made you (Abraham) a father of many nations."  He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.     NIV


Continuing  on through verse 21...


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.    NIV


Try as I may, sometimes I waver, and my faith is quite the opposite of strengthened.  So I thought it might do me some good to read it again.  So I did.  And then I decided it to read it again and then in 3 or 4 translations and WHOA, I LOVE this one, it's my favorite.  


From The Message:


17-18 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. Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father 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. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!"



I love how it says, first Abraham was named "father", then he became father, because he dared to trust.  


So today, I'm going to look at all of those things that I so long to be a reality, I'm going to call them "done."  And instead of lying awake thinking about them tonight, I'm going to dare to trust God to do what only HE can:  raise the dead to life and with just a word--make something out of nothing.  


What are YOU believing God for today?

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