The Act of Belief

 

    

Gal 3:6

 

6 Don't these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God.

(THE MESSAGE)

Believing God.  This is an action that a four-year-old can easily do. Yet it seems a forty-year-old can struggle to do it. Why do we  struggle so much with believing God? 

I can list a hundred reasons why a person may struggle to believe- previous disappointment; offense with God or man; staleness in their walk with God... the possibilities are endless.  But does it really matter why we do not believe?  Isn't the more important question how do we get back to believing?

Today's verse talks about Abraham.  He was old- well beyond any hope of child-siring.  And yet, God appeared to him and made him an outlandish promise:

    

Gen 15:4-5

 

4 And behold, the word of the Lord  came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." 5 Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."

NKJV

There are many ways that Abraham could have responded, but only way held the potential to make it reality. He believed.  He did not spend his time reflecting on the impossibility of it,  but he somehow grabbed hold of the irrefutable knowledge that God was able. 

I think many of us fail to believe, because our image of God is way smaller than what He is.   We do not recall His omnipotence (that He is all powerful),  His omniscience (that He is all knowing), or His omnipresence (that He is everywhere present).   We forget that He is above all, in all and through all.  We fail to focus on the fact that He is limitless in knowledge, power, resources, and ability.  There is NOTHING outside of His ability to perform.  He is not bound by the laws of nature.  He is not limited by a human vessel.  Time does not constrain Him.  He is the mighty, covenant-keeping God.  We must expand our view of Him.  We must exalt and magnify Him.  Then our belief can stretch to meet the demands of our need.

Dear God, I believe, but help my unbelief.  Forgive me for not seeing who You really are.  Grant me the faith to grasp all that You have promised me.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.