4/28/08
Romans 4:13-16; 18 (The Message) “13-15That famous promise God gave Abraham—that he and his children would possess the earth—was not given because of something Abraham did or would do. It was based on God's decision to put everything together for him, which Abraham then entered when he believed. If those who get what God gives them only get it by doing everything they are told to do and filling out all the right forms properly signed, that eliminates personal trust completely and turns the promise into an ironclad contract! That's not a holy promise; that's a business deal. A contract drawn up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine print only makes sure that you will never be able to collect. But if there is no contract in the first place, simply a promise—and God's promise at that—you can't break it.
16This is why the fulfillment of God's promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God's promise arrives as pure gift.
…18Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do.
Wow. This passage jumped off of the page for me. Has God given you promises that you are waiting on? Here are some of the things I learned from this passage…
- God’s promises aren’t based on what we do or will do. They are simply His good favor toward us.
- Our responsibility is not to fulfill our end of the bargain, but simply to trust and believe Him.
- God is not trying to get something from us; He’s trying to give something to us.
- We cannot nullify God’s promises by our own shortcomings. He is not making a deal with us or writing a contract with lots of fine print.
- You will become what He names you as you trust Him. The more we trust God, the more our life begins to look like his plan.
- Don’t live by what you see, live by what God said. The popular scripture is still true -- We walk by faith and not by sight.
- Only God can bring His plans for us to fruition. We can make it happen or be good enough to hurry His plan. His timing is perfect