Impossible Faith

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%204-7&version=NIV

I like to read about the faith of Abraham and the work God did in and through his life lived by faith. It always encourages me to read about God's promises fulfilled, though often circumstances prior to filling those promises looked impossible. I wish I could say that I had the faith of Abraham, but I don't think that I do. I am not sure I even come close. I'm not a faith rock star, but an Abraham wanna be. Anyone with me on that?

Here's why I feel that way. If you read Romans 4:18-22, we read that Abraham hoped and believed against all hope. What does it mean to believe against all hope? It means to believe in impossible circumstances. Abraham was promised that he would be the father of many nations. He was promised an off-spring. Yet his body is described as "good as dead" since he was 100 years old and his wife's womb was also dead. Still he believed. In fact, not only did he still believe, God's word says "Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised."

I wish I could ask Abraham how he did it. I want to know how one looks at impossible circumstances and still believes. All too often I look at my circumstance that aren't really all that impossible and if one barrier seems to be in the way, my faith wavers. What I'm learning though, is to grab hold of my faith again and what that takes is removing my eyes from the circumstances and putting them back on God. I think Abraham would tell me that when you put your eyes on God - the God who cannot lie, the one who is faithful and true, that your circumstances become inconsequential in comparison to God. For indeed, Abraham knew - and deep in my heart I know also - that God is not a God of the possible, but I God of the impossible. I love how Romans 4:17 describes God as Abraham believed - and then experienced - him to be. He believed in "the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were."

What an incredible truth that I pray, my friends, would plant deeply in your heart today and never be forgotten. Our God creates life when there is none - he calls things that are not as though they are and so they become. He did it at creation, he did it in the form of a little baby for a woman and a man who were as good as dead, he did it in the valley of dry bones, he did it in Elizabeth's womb, and when he raised Lazarus from the dead. Friends, he has done it time and time again in the lives of his people, and he will do it in yours and mine.

And friends, I also pray that you would hold on to the truth that the more impossible your circumstance, the more amazing it is when God moves. God's promises are an expression of His Holiness - their fulfillment a display of his glory. I once had a friend ask me about something that I am still waiting on if I wanted God to work in my life in a natural way or if I wanted him to work in a supernatural way? I will tell you today that while the waiting for promises to be fulfilled can be so hard, I would rather God move in my life in an amazing, supernatural way that bring him glory. I want to be able to speak not of a God of the possible, but of a God of the impossible. Abraham and Sarah waited many years for the fulfillment of God's promise. But imagine how that wait intensified their joy - and God's glory. I love what Sarah says - and I know what I will say one day when God steps into my waiting:

"God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me." - Genesis 21:6

My precious ones - I pray that God will bring you laughter in the near future, for he is a God who keeps his promises - he cannot help Himself - He cannot lie, and he is filled with love for you. He gives us a future because his work for us and through us - like Abraham - bring him glory, as we laugh in joy when our God of the impossible speaks life into our circumstances and calls things that are not as if they were.