By: Steve Wilmot
Edgerton, Ohio
You’re probably familiar with the story of Abraham and Sarah in the Old Testament. God promised them a son. They tried for decades to have a baby. No success. Year after childless year.
Abraham turned 100, Sarah 95. Still childless. Still waiting on God to keep his promise. No one would blame them for thinking God either lied to them and never intended to give them a son, or he sincerely wanted to but wasn’t able to make it happen.
Sarah’s prime child-bearing years are in the rearview mirror, and Abraham’s heyday of sexual prowess is long gone. Who would criticize them for losing faith after all this time?
But they didn’t. They continued to believe God… even when all the facts screamed, “It’s too late. It can’t happen now. You are a fool to think you can have a baby at your age and after all this time has passed.” Read this and marvel:
“In hope against hope, Abraham in hope believed” (Romans 4:18). “Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead… and that Sarah’s womb was dead” (Romans 4:19).
“He did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God” (Romans 4:20). Rather than weakening or wavering faith, Abraham “was strengthened in his faith” (Romans 4:20).
Are you kidding me? In view of his circumstances, decades of failure trying to father a baby, and logic leading to the conclusion it’s impossible now, Abraham continued to hold onto hope; his faith didn’t weaken; he didn’t waver through unbelief or doubt. In fact, his faith grew stronger!
I have just one question: How, Abraham? How did you not lose hope? How did your faith get stronger instead of weakening or wavering?
I’d love to know the answer, wouldn’t you? I long to have that kind of faith, don’t you? I want to know how Abraham still believed God would keep his promise after every indicator said: It’s too late. It’s impossible.
Thankfully, we don’t have to wonder. God told Paul why Abraham’s faith remained solid and intact, and Paul wrote it down so we could know how Abraham did it.
Ready? Here it is: Abraham was “fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised” (Romans 4:21).
Not sort of persuaded. Nor mostly persuaded. Fully persuaded. No room for doubt or uncertainty. Despite the circumstances, Abraham knew without question God would do what he promised to do.
See, Abraham knew two facts about God he’d seen proven multiple times in his life already that carried more weight to him than the data spelled out.
One, nothing is impossible for God. He has the power to do everything he promises. Two, God always keeps his promise. Abraham couldn’t cite one time in his 100 years of life or in the history of those who lived before he was born when God failed to do to precisely what he said he’d do. Not one time. That’s a record you can confidently believe in your situation.
You know these facts too if you’ve walked with God any amount of time. He is able, and he is faithful all the time.
What promise from God are you clinging to that looks right now like he might not keep? Is your faith weakening and wavering the longer you wait? Has doubt elbowed its way in, and you’re getting closer to concluding God won’t keep his promise?
Don’t give up on God, or your faith in him. Let your faith be strengthened instead by fixing thoughts on proven facts: Nothing is impossible for him, and he’s never left a promise unfulfilled for anyone… ever…
And you won’t be the first.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.