There is a story in the Bible that comes to my mind when I talk about belief in God. A story that I come back to often. Every year after I read it in my daily Bible reading, I’m challenged by God to stretch my faith and believe God beyond reason. It’s the story of Abram.
If you have your Bible, put this book down and go read Genesis 12. Abram’s story spans through Genesis 25. Make it your aim to read through it this week.
In Genesis 12, God told Abram to leave his father and mother’s household and go to a land that He would show him. God says to Abram, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples on the earth will be blessed through you.”
What an amazing promise! God says He’s going to make Abram into a great nation, He’s going to bless him AND all the people of the earth will be blessed through Abram.
In response, Abram believes God. Period. He doesn’t make excuses as to why he can’t leave his homeland or why he’s not the right man for the job.
He responds quickly by leaving with all his belongings on a journey that only God could see the end of Abram believed God and it was counted as righteousness in God’s eyes. He believed, then he obeyed. Believe and obey.
Believing God isn’t just a one-time event.
The amazing part of Abram’s story is that he continued to believe God, even when God asked him to do things contrary to His promises. Abram developed a lifestyle of taking God at His word and obeying Him.
Do you ever find as a Christian that it’s easy to follow God in the beginning? When your excitement and passion are fueled. When you can’t wait to get up in the mornings and spend time with Him. When you believe God for the promise that has just begun. You can’t wait to partner with Him to see His will come to pass. You walk in obedience with a spring in your step.
But inevitably, you will reach the middle. In the middle, you are far from the starting line and even farther from the finish line. That’s when your belief can waiver.
I remember running my first and only marathon. The first mile or two, my body was electric with excitement. I felt as if I was running on clouds of ease with the wind at my back. I could run like that forever. But by mile eighteen—with the beginning a distant speck in my rearview mirror and no end in sight—it was a fight to keep going. My running became consistently harder and I felt as if I had twenty-pound weights attached to each ankle. My body screamed at me to quit, but my heart and mind told me to keep going—this was what I had trained for.
It’s great to have beginning faith, but I want to have faith for the middle too—faith that will see me through to the finish line!
It’s in the middle of his journey that Abram begins to question how God is actually going to do what He promised. The Bible says that sometime later God appears to Abram in a vision and says, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.” Abram’s response is equivalent to saying, “Yeah, that’s great God, but what good is all that if I don’t have an heir?”
Now, before you question Abram’s impatience, let me bring a little bit of clarity to this timeline. The “sometime later” here doesn’t refer to a day later, a week later, or six to eight months later. No, this “later” in scripture refers to over ten years later! You see, God had promised Abram He would make him into a great nation, but Abram was worried because he did not have an heir, which in his culture meant that all of Abram’s possessions and inheritance would go to his servant.
God continues to speak to Abram after Abram’s response and reaffirms His promise for Abram’s life. “Then the Lord said to him, ‘No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.’ Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, ‘Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!’ And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.”
I find it beautiful how God steps into the midst of the years and reaffirms His promise for Abram.
God stirs Abram’s faith once again for the promise He made a decade ago. He gives him faith for the middle.
Maybe you need to be reaffirmed today of a promise God has for your life. Be reaffirmed that He is for you, that He is with you. Reaffirmed that what you’ve experienced in the past and what you are experiencing now doesn’t side track God’s amazing plan for your life one bit.
"Can I reaffirm you in the midst of the years of believing in God? My sweet precious friend, God can and will bring every promise to pass for your life. Can I stoke up your faith in the middle? Just like God did for Abram, He wants to do for you. And all you need to do is believe."
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Design by Milan Klusacek, milanklusacek.com
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