Non-weakening Faith

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

BELIEVING GOD

NON-WEAKENING FAITH

Rom 4:18-25

18 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."   19 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 — and that Sarah's womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." 23 The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness — for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

NIV

What is impossible with man, is always possible with God. The question is whether we believe God for the impossible. Abraham knew full well, that, the promise that  he would be the father of many nations was absolutely impossible in the natural sense, in the human realm, as he was well past the ability to father children, as well as Sarah, being well past childbearing age, her womb was far too old and her ovaries were unable to produce any eggs for fertilization. This was going to be impossible, however, Abraham did not waver in his believing God to fulfill the promise, and his faith did not weaken. How many times have we received blessings from God that were far beyond our own abilities? When we count those blessings, the number is staggering. Our entire life has been filled with God promising us he would do this or that, and all we could do is believe him, and low and behold, his promise was fulfilled time and time again so we must admit that we have lived a life of faith because, for one thing, we were never going to be able to accomplish that which we lived with the means that were available to us. Certainly, this concerns our salvation, for God promised that to all who believe. Of course, it also refers to our resurrection into eternal life. It is also interesting the word justification in Greek carries the meaning of the act of God declaring us free from guilt and acceptable to him. Jesus was raised to life for our justification. However, even as fantastic as all that is, God also has promised us things in this life, through our life, over and over again regarding this physical realm that we live in. He has given us so much, again the number is astronomical. It would almost take a book to record all the promises that God has made to me personally and fulfilled every one of them. My testimony can only be that of living with faith. Again, we can be certain that we have no righteousness other than what comes through faith in Jesus. We can be sure that we are not worthy of the many times God has fulfilled his promise, for in our humanity we are not perfect. Yet, with faith and faith alone, believing God when all the odds were against him Abraham was considered righteous because he lived by faith. Can we do any better than Abraham? No, but we can do the same and simply believe God. However, we must ensure that our faith never weakens.