There is something to be said about determination. It’s a very important aspect of any endeavor in life. Let’s consider enduring and surviving an illness, for example. No matter how much encouragement you get from your loved ones, if you don’t have the willpower to overcome, it’s less likely that you will. But as much as willful determination factors into succeeding, the bible tells us that our determination to be right in God’s eyes is not enough.
Romans chapters 1-3 are often looked at as very heavy and hard to accept because it really impacts us with the sobering fact of our sinfulness, and the fate we face as guilty sinners. But around the middle point of Chapter 3, hope arrives in the form of Jesus. To that arrival, we say Amen. Now Jesus is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith- Hebrews 12:2- that’s no lie, but there’s someone who may get forgotten because of Jesus. That person is Abraham.
Abraham is a very interesting person and very important to anyone who professes faith in Christ because the Bible says he’s our forefather- Romans 4:16. Someone once said, when you think about what it means to be an American, you have to think about how the founding Fathers of the country would say about that, since they founded the country. Similarly, we have to follow in the tradition of our forefather of faith, Abraham. This in a nutshell is what Apostle Paul was trying to get across to the Roman Church’s Jewish population.
The Bible from old testament to New tells one story about a rebellious race that is being embraced by its loving creator who is on a quest to transform and renew his creation. Abraham is a really great example of that transformation.
Romans 4:18 says 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.”
All humanly conceived sources of hope were gone.
• He was 100 years old
• His wife was barren and also elderly.
• He was the son of an idol seller (His family basically made a living by promoting idolatry.)
There was no future for him. There was nothing in this man’s life worth even living for. Essentially, his situation was void of hope. But it says that God came to him and basically spoke a promise of insanity( if it had come from a human), and Abraham held onto hope that God was capable of fulfilling it.
His life was as good as dead, yet he believed. Abraham had a transformative faith. Abraham had resurrection faith.
We all want the transforming, resurrecting faith of our Forefather, Abe. This world is hopeless, but God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. The faith we have in him surely resurrected us, transformed us. But why stop there? God surely isn’t stopping there.
This kind of faith is the faith that cries out for the nations to hear the Gospel and be set free.
Against all hope, we in hope believed and became the saved (Ephesians 2:8). And along with our salvation came a commission (Matthew 28:16-20), a new role, title and position. We believed and became fishers of men( Matthew 4:19). We believed and became the wounded made well (John 9:3-7).
We once were captives, but Jesus set us free and sent us out like Apostles( Romans 1:1) to set the world free with the Gospel. Us, Christians, against all hope, in hope believe, and therefore we become.
Are you holding onto hope? Do you believe?
Take this time to meditate:
Journal out some answers to these questions
• Have 3-5 minutes of prayer time over what you learning from today’s devotional
• If there was one situation or thing about you that you want changed through faith, what would it be and why?
• Genesis 12:3 says “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” How have you been blessed through Abraham?
• If you apply Genesis 12:3 to yourself, what does it mean that the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you?
For more on these subjects
• the Book of Genesis 12-25
• Reach out to us on Instagram( @am_intl) for more graceful content. God bless