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Hear the devotional here: https://anchor.fm/eradio-valverde/episodes/Something-Out-of-Nothing-e1vkb6a
View the devotional Here: https://www.tiktok.com/@eradiovalverde/video/7205062103537896746?lang=en
1 So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in the faith, into this new way of looking at things? 2 If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we're given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story. 3 What we read in Scripture is, "Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own." 4 If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don't call your wages a gift. 5 But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it - you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked - well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift. 13 That 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. 14 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. 15 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. 16 This 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. That's the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father - that's reading the story backwards. He is our faith father. 17 We call Abraham "father" not because he got God's attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham 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. (Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 The Message Bible)
I admire many of the characters in the Bible. My favorite is Peter and the way he acted on many ocassions, impulsive and hardheadedly. He reminds me of someone I love very much. Yes, me. But I have always been in deep admiration of Abraham. Every day brings me closer to his age, by the way. He was of retirement age and out of the blue, God visits him and asks him to do something many people of much younger years of age would not do. And that was to move. Now, I'm a retired UM pastor and so I know the work and stress behind any kind of move. In fact, the first call I made as a district superintendent and told the pastor that he and his family were moving, I cried afterwards. I waited, of course, until I was back at the hotel and my wife completely understood. It's hard to move! Even with movers involved, it is a task I no longer like to even consider. I know times were different back then, but still Two Men and a Camel were not the best movers around. And this passage if Paul being a bit more considerate and thoughtful than I'm being.
You see, this is a "God-story, not an Abraham-story." All that happened was caused by God and Abraham saw it, as Paul says, as something to enter into. Abraham trusted God and so was able to say yes to what God asked of him. It was an offer that Abraham could not refuse. The promises made to him, even at that age, enticed him to say yes and off he went with his wife Sarah. It was a covenant, not a contract. A covenant is holy and sacred. It's more, as Paul says, like accepting a gift. All this happened because of faith. By faith Abraham said yes, and by faith Abraham became Father Abraham. And by faith Abraham became something out of nothing. I love that, because you and I have been there; and some of you are on the way there. God visited us, invited us, we said yes, and our journey bagan. We have been blessed on our journey because we trust God and know God is with us and will guide and bless us if we let Him. And we do not because we want to become "somebody," because in God's eyes we already are, but because we enjoy and we are blessed by the blessings and rewards that have come to us as we make our journey with God.
PRAYER: Loving God, bless us as we continue our journey. Let us help others on the way by loving them, sharing words of encouargement and make our journey company bigger; in Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! YOUR CALL TO ACTION: Say yes to God. Always.
Receive my blessings of love and joiy,
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
