Image from newlifenarrabi.wordpress.com
Hear the devotional here: https://bit.ly/3uvqu4V
View the devotional: https://bit.ly/49lil1Q
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)
Happy Tuesday, dear Friend. May this be a day of new beginnings for you as you hear God's heart speak to your heart.
The story of Abraham has always impressed me as we can sdee it did Paul as well. Abraham is truly to Paul and to the entire Jewish people, the Father of the faith, for his obedience to God. He said yes, as did his wife, Sarah, when God asked them to leave home and family to follow Him into a new land. And that promise also included believing in something that would gradually make less sense by the day; that he was to be the father of many children when they knew that Sarah could not bear children. And we know the entire story of him having a child by the servant woman, whose son became the father of the Arabs. The emnity between the two women, Sarah and Hagar, with Hagar and Ishmael being banished from the camp. Yet God had made, as this version says, a holy promise, not a business deal, to provide this couple with a child. Though faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles – advanced age and infertility – Abraham clung to God's promise. This reminds us that faith isn't blind optimism; it's choosing to believe God even when doubts whisper and circumstances scream otherwise.
Just as Abraham was transformed from a nobody to the "father of many nations" through faith, God offers us similar transformation. When we trust Him, He declares us "fit," seen through His lens of grace and love, not the world's harsh judgments. "The message of being put right doesn't go to those who work their way into it but to those who trust the One who puts wrongs right, who gives life to things that are dead and calls creation to life. Abraham trusted God when there was no reason to; as far as human hopes went, he was surrounded by death. But he held on to the promise anyway, trusting God to bring life out of death and create the future He'd promised." Faith isn't a transaction; it's a free gift we receive by trusting God's power to create and redeem.
The culmination of this passage brings it all home. Jesus' sacrifice embodies God's unwavering promise and makes us "fit for God" through faith. Just as He raised Jesus from the dead, He can breathe life into our brokenness and fulfill His purpose in our lives. This devotional isn't meant to leave you simply inspired; it's a call to action. Embrace the gift of faith, stand on God's unwavering promises, and trust Him even when your future seems like a barren desert. Like Abraham, you too can be transformed and experience the miracle of God's faithfulness in your life.
PRAYER: Loving God, thank You for the gift of faith and the unshakeable promises You offer. Forgive our moments of doubt and help us anchor oursevles in Your Word. We choose to trust You, even when we don't see the way. Bring life out of our challenges and fulfill Your purpose in our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! YOUR CALL TO ACTION: Remember, you are not alone in this journey of faith. May this passage fuel your steps as you walk hand-in-hand with God, trusting His promises even when the path seems uncertain.
I love you and I thank God for you,
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
