Abraham's Faith for The Impossible

 

Being Fully Persuaded in God's Plan: Romans 4:18-25

Abraham’s fully persuaded faith in God’s promise is something that took a lifetime. With faith comes a steadfastness that surpasses natural abilities and arbitrary time frames.  

“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” (verse 18)

What I notice, is that faith isn’t something that happens quickly. How do you get to a point of absolute trust in a plan that’s so far seemed impossible? The next few verses offer a closer look. “Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old.” (verse 19) You might think that as the years added up, his faith would become less strong. But his belief is sure, despite the lack of a discernable path forward. Abraham spent a lifetime filing up his faith reservoir by taking steps of obedience.  

But faith is not the opposite of doubt.

Experiencing Small Victories

 Both can exist within a person to varying degrees. Have you ever believed God for a financial breakthrough or healing from a headache? I was short on money one year but desperately wanted to go to Illinois for the Christmas break. My ride was all lined up, I rode with at least one of my brothers to share gas. But I didn’t have a lot to spend. It was going to be a tight vacation. I needed extra money, but I’d worked all the hours available. I couldn’t see a way to make any more before we left. I prayed about it. I don’t remember it being a particularly spiritual prayer, something along the lines of “help!”.

That year, everyone got a Christmas bonus. I was ecstatic, relieved, joyful and overwhelmed. I had been there 8 years at the time and we never got a bonus. Now I’ve been there 15 years and we’ve still not had another. It wasn’t a lot of money but it covered a couple of tanks of gas a few meals along the road. God was showing me that no prayer is too small. Here’s what’s important though. That small victory went into my faith reservoir. Whenever I think of God’s goodness I’m reminded of that unexpected blessing.

Now back to Abraham. Abraham didn’t serve the Lord until well into adulthood. His tribe worshipped idols and sacrificed children. God brought him out of that and moved him into a literal faith-based relationship the only way He could. We know about the angel stopping him from sacrificing his own son, Isaac. But how many small victories did Abraham put into his faith reservoir? At a hundred years old, he had become “fully persuaded” in the Heavenly Father’s promise. There is only one way that happens for anyone. We need to spend a lot of time stretching our faith for small and big things.

Abraham’s faith was connected to his righteousness. “…not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.” (verse 23) Another way to say this is “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

Dealing with Doubt

We have a faith reservoir and a doubt reservoir. These are not mutually exclusive. If they were than we would put our trust in God’s previous miracles in our lives. My nick of time bonus money should have been all the faith I needed. If we didn’t also deal with doubt, the faith should have pushed out whatever lingering doubt remained. Why then did I not put my trust in God every time a financial need arose? I’d seen God’s blessing after all. The apostles asked Jesus to help with their unbelief when they couldn’t help a demon possessed man in Mark 9:24. That tells me that even with faith, doubt remains a stumbling block.

It doesn’t have to though. We can feed doubt the same way we feed faith. Through experiences, attitudes and practice we add to our internal tanks. These both shape our philosophy on life, they’re the energy behind it our approach to trouble. If Abraham’s life is any guide, time and patience in the presence of God add up to big time faith. Paul calls it “fully persuaded faith”. Abraham had doubts too. He said his wife, Sarah, was his sister to avoid trouble with the local ruler Abimelek.

Over his life though, the faith reservoir is being filled as God reveals more of Himself to Abraham. His doubt diminishes to the point of being non-existent. As a human he has the capacity for doubt, as well as fear, but his faith builds in trials. It should be encouraging that Christians today have the Holy Spirit as a guide and helper in all things. We have tools Abraham never had. We also have a record of what faithfulness looks like in the scriptures. Abraham had to figure this out with no faith road map.

Conclusion

Isaac was an answer to a promise from God that both parents had waited for, until there was no physical way to have kids. How did the increasing years waiting for the promise not increase doubt instead of building faith? Because of the obedient steps that Abraham followed, beginning with his trek out of Ur. Every step of faith (even the small ones) helped build fill his reservoir, until the time frame didn’t matter.

Our time frame with God is an arbitrary concept. I’m learning how to fill up the reservoir and ignore the time frame. God is faithful and I’m moving toward being fully persuaded.