When God made His promise to Abraham, “No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations,” (Genesis 17:5), Abraham had no offspring, no son, that is, not by his wife Sarah. Further, he was ninety-nine years old, and Sarah was about ninety, and both were well past their childbearing years.
But what seems impossible to us is possible with God. This was what the Apostle Paul pointed out through Abraham’s life as he continues his argument that our lives are to be lived by faith alone so that it might be according to God’s grace.
“As it is written: ‘I have made you a father of many nations.’ He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.” (Romans 4:17)
Abraham’s faith was in God alone. Abraham’s faith was in the all-powerful God who has the power to breathe life where no life exists. Abraham believed that God could give life, make alive, vitalize, revive, and resurrect the dead. His faith was in the Lord who can create something where nothing exists.
But Abraham’s faith was not just in the promises, but also in the One who is able to keep His promises, and that is God alone.
God is not inhibited by what seems impossible or dead to us. God is not limited by our limitations or our inabilities. What God has promised only He can fulfill and will fulfill because He is God.
When Mary, mother of Jesus, questioned how she could possibly give birth when she never had sex with a man, the angel said, “Nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37)
So, let’s put our faith in God and not in what circumstances may dictate, or what we think we can do, because our inabilities are God’s possibilities, and God is a promise keeping God even when such promises seem impossible.
This was Paul’s main argument saying, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13)
Dennis Lee is the senior pastor of Living Waters Fellowship located at 211 West 1st South, behind ACE Hardware.
This Sunday at 10 a.m., begins our special “WELCOME BACK” open house that will extend over the next three weeks entitled “RESET YOUR LIFE.” In this series we’ll be looking at getting ourselves reset, reignited, and refueled, not only for the coming holidays, but for life.
This week we’ll be looking at “Resetting Your Life.”
There will be food and fellowship both prior and after the services, and special gift bags for our guests. And for your assurance, we completely clean and sanitize the Sanctuary, Fellowship Hall, and Children’s Ministry twice weekly.
Our Sunday morning service can be accessed either in-person or on-line (Children and Youth ministry available). All services and teachings, including Sunday 6 p.m. service, are available on our YouTube Channel, “Mesquite NV Living Waters Fellowship.”
Pastor Lee also provides daily inspiration (Devotionals, Scripture and a Prayer, and Thoughts) on his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/dennis.lee.3760/
In reading this, in regards to our need to focus on God’s possibilities and not our inabilities, I am reminded also of God’s conversation with Moses in the burning bush in Exodus chapters 3 and 4 when God lets Moses know He is going to be using him to deliver the Israelites up out of Egypt and from the bondage they were in, beginning by sending him to Pharaoh. Moses throughout the conversation focused more on his inadequacies than in God’s promises. Moses’s first response in chapter 3:11 was “who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”, thus questioning who he was rather than trusting who God was. But the one that stood out to me the most was chapter 4:10, ““O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” But I love God’s response in the very next verses 11 & 12, ““Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.” This has really spoken to me. It’s never about who we are, it’s always about who God is and what He alone can do in and through us to fulfil His promises and purposes. The very things we think inhibit us are the very things God uses.
Debbie,
Excellent example with Moses of this great truth.
Thanks for Sharing
Dennis