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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. 18 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. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!" 19 Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. 20 He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, 21 sure that God would make good on what he had said. 22 That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right." 23 But it's not just Abraham; 24 it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. 25 The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God. (Romans 4:13-25 The Message Bible)
A gracious and blessed Tuesday be yours, dear Reader. My prayer is that the joy of the Lord bless you and strengthen you today and all days. I also pray that this time together with the Lord will bless you with exactly that which you need. Pray for one another. Pray for those who have asked prayers from you. Pray for the needs of the world. Pray for those who feel outside and unloved; and do your part to bring them into the love of Christ Jesus. Also, a lady named Diane Battles from a sister church is facing surgery tomorrow, Wednesday. Please pray for her, that she be calm and trusting in God and that the surgery bring her the desired results for her life and wellbeing. May God bless you for sharing of your time and prayers.
My father was a man of his word. If he promises something, he would deliver. If he said he would be somewhere, he was there. I thank God that my Dad never let me down. My wife is a woman of her word in the very same way. I trust her with my life and with all things as well. I know she will be there for me if I need her, and will do what she says she will do. You may have people like that in your life, too and if we could multiply the promises and deeds fo those whom we trust, we would only be about a sand pebble towards reaching what God's promises are. Just think of the beach and the vastness of the sand, and you get the picture of God's faithfulness. I love this modern version's interpretation of this. It is not what we do that gets us God's promises; it is who we are; His beloved creation. Abraham, as Father of the Fatih, is called that because he believed, but it was God's love that made that promise come through. Our relationship with God should be just one of love, not a contract of we do this and God will do that. God will do what He has promised because He loves us. It comes as a gift, an unexpected one. I love seeing some social media posts of some who will ask money from strangers then surprise those who help with larger amounts. One gentleman will ask for a dollar, and those who help are given a thousand. What has been interesting about those videos is the ones who help are the ones who seem to truly need that dollar just to survive. Another man stood outside a grocery store and asked people to feed him with what they had already bought; the same was repeated at a gas station. Most angrily said, "I have what I have because I worked hard!" Then, when someone helps the man, he gives them money for their groceries or for their gas. And what makes it sad and funny are the people who angrily said no to then whining that they need money, too.
This passage says that Abraham received what he got not because he was a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. (v. 17). I get nothing but joy from reading that, mainly because I am miles from being a saint, and yet God still loves me and God is not through working on me. I, like you, am under construction. I live not basing myself thinking that I can do but rather knowing what God can do. Yes, I prepare, I pray, I trust, I read and re-read, but yet trust that God will do through me what needs to be done; for that was His promise to me when He first called me into ministry. We focus not on what we perceive are our weaknesses, but on God's strengths.
I love the closing verses of this passage, verses 24 and 25, "The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God." Live a life, dear one, embracing and believing Jesus all the time. And stand back, for God will do marveloous things in, thorugh, and for, us.
PRAYER: Come, loving God and grant me faith and trust to do what You have asked of me. I seek to love You and all of Yours; in Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord. YOUR CALL TO ACTION: Embrace Jesus with faith, and live a life that invites others to do the same.
Receive my blessings of joy and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
