Faith and Promises

1 Chronicles 24:1-26:11

Romans 4:1-12

Psalm 13:1-6

Proverbs 19:15-16

I'm a day behind in the reading...but that's okay!

"Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Romans 4:1-12 (quoting Genesis)

This reminds me also of Luke 1:45 "Blessed is she who believed the Lord would fulfill His promises to her!"

It's probably one of my favorite verses in the Bible for the same reason I love this verse in Genesis, Romans, and again in Hebrews. Abraham believed God was good and faithful and would keep His promise to make him a great nation through Isaac EVEN when God was asking him to sacrifice his son. Abraham knew that EVEN in those circumstances, God was not going to fail him, and he obeyed!

He didn't say, "God must be kidding." nor "I must be mishearing Him." nor "God said this but He didn't mean it."

That's...what Eve did! Abraham didn't. He did not sin in this, he obeyed God even though it went against everything he thought he knew about God because he KNEW God said so and he trusted God!

Mary did the same thing. She submitted to God in such a radically crazy way and believed that she was going to be the mother of the Messiah!

I think the way it works is when God tells us something...when He gives a vision, a word, a promise, when He shows us who He is: in a special individual way or the Bible or the Gospel...we have to hold onto that no matter what. No matter how hard things get, we have to remember "no, this is who God is." That's what faith is! And it's all we have sometimes, it's all we need! God is good and faithful and REAL and He never breaks His promises.