28 Days To Trust And Obey - Day 21

In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be.’
Romans 4:18


God has spoken over and over again over these past several days. Requests have been honed, new desires planted in our souls by the Lord Himself, and we have been challenged not to believe what we see but to believe Who we hear. By now we have a basic understanding about what the word “believe” means.

God spoke a promise to Abraham in [Genesis 12:1-3], when He promised that Abraham would be made into a great nation. But as the years passed, Abraham had no heir (no son) but he still had a promise from God. Over the years the Lord continued to give reassurance concerning this promise. A year turned into two, five, seven, ten, fifteen, twenty. Well over two decades came and went and Abraham still did not have the desire of his heart; a son. Yes, he did fail to trust the Lord and he did lean on his understanding by trusting in Sarah’s maidservant and was given a son through her. God was clear to tell Abraham that son was not the promised heir.

More waiting. More praying. Abraham grew old, Sarah grew old and everything about them physically told them that God had not come through. But in hope against hope, Abraham believed God. His body was old and worn out, well past his sexual prime. Sarah’s body was many years past her child-bearing years, yet still Abraham had no reason to keep hoping or to keep believing except he had a word from God.

For over two decades all he had was a promise from a God. When he should have abandoned hope, when his eyes deceived him, when it seemed that God had forsaken him, he kept praying, kept hoping, and kept believing. Many of us have given up hope a lot sooner than two decades. Some of us may have struggled to maintain trust and hope for two months, much less two decades.

I know the Lord has promised things and called us to a hope that can only be sustained by faith. For many the only legitimate reason you have to hold on to any hope at all is that God has spoken to you and promised you something. Much of what I have been praying for in my own personal life concerns things that God has promised me and spoken to me about, but for a long time I have not had one shred of physical evidence that those things He has spoken and promised will ever come to pass. Some of these promises I have been praying over for years and others for only a few months. In either case the only hope I have is that God has spoken and spoken often.

I know Abraham was not perfect, but you cannot help but admire this man’s confidence in God to come through. In hope against hope he kept asking and kept trusting. Many of you are at this point. You have no reasonable hope that your prayers will be answered, but is God calling you to hope against hope and to keep on believing Him for the impossible? Is God calling you to forget what you see but to believe by faith what you have heard from Him? Once again you are faced with a decision - do you hope against hope and believe or do you believe what you see and forget what God has promised you?


Steps to Trust and Obey:

1. Write out any promises God has made to you in these days.
2. List all the reasons you should not maintain hope. Contrast that with another list of all the reasons God is giving you to maintain hope?
3. What do you see? What do you believe?
4. What are you going to do now? How will you pray today?