that. I mean this promise the Lord was giving to Abram was pretty outlandish. Abram was like a hundred and he never had any kids of his own, but God was saying look how many stars I made, if you could count them, that's how many babies and grand-babies and grand-grand-babies I am going to make from you and ol' Sarai over there. This was such an incredibly unbelievable thing God was saying. As if Abram could count the stars. As if Abram could even begin to fathom what this promise was going to mean. He knew as little about what God had in mind as the little he knew about the stars. Abram didn't have any picture from the Hubble floating around, as far as he knew the stars were some twinkly night lights that he might have used to tell the seasons, or help him go in the right direction in the dessert. He probably didn't know there were billions of them. There was know way he could have know each one was gigantic ball of gas and fire and whatever else stars are made of. He probably had no idea how huge this promise God was making would be either; that because he believed God, God saw his righteousness and was able to give him more faith to continue believing the impossible, that his son was going to help shape the entire history of the world and how God's plans would play out. That's a pretty huge promise.Imagine, or maybe you don't want to, the conversations that followed the next little while. Old man Abram says to his aged, barron wifey Sarai, "ok Sarai, I know we're old and kind of out of practice, but the Lord says we're going to have a baby, so you know what we need to do..."
"Get out of here you ol' coot, stop being so foolish..."
But at some point, she believed the Lord too I guess, along comes baby!
In The Story: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People it's written this way,
"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." 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. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why 'it was credited to him as righteousness."(Chapter 2)
Wait, maybe following Jesus is just like this after all. Abraham looked at the promise of God, then he looked at the impossibility of that promise happening based on the simple fact that his body and Sarah's body were beyond any ability to make a baby. How could that not cause him to weaken his faith? Well because he knew his faith wasn't really his faith, it was given to him by God. He wasn't depending on himself at all. He'd been given a situation that he couldn't do anything to make happen, except depend on God. and God delivered, the faith to believe and the means to make it reality.
Jesus has given us an impossible promise, "Your sins are forgiven."
'Nope, not mine, not possible, I'm as good as dead...' On my own that is. But God's promise is that He'll make the way, He'll make the impossible happen. As we continue to depend on Jesus for everything he will strengthen our faith as we look at his promise and chose to believe it. God saw Abraham as righteous, not because he was a good person, or did the right things, or sacrificed the right things, he saw Him as righteous because he continued to believe, depending on the faith God was giving him, that God would take care of everything, that he would fulfill His promise.
We have to follow Jesus the same way . Jesus will give you the faith to believe what he says, that your sin is forgiven and that you can follow him. Even if it seems impossible. Even if you think your struggle, your condition, your addiction, your brokenness is beyond fixing. It is beyond you. But just look up and start counting the stars, then go to the Hubble website and look at what God spoke into existence, then look at your situation again. His promises are true, and he doesn't ever go back on His word. And when he gives you the faith to believe what he says, he counts that as your righteousness and he doesn't see your struggle, your condition, your addiction, your brokenness, your sin.
He only sees the promise he made, 'I gave My only son's life for those things, so that I could make a way for you to be whole again. And now I'm going to make it happen, just believe me, I won't let you down'
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