The apostle Paul says something about Abraham in Romans 4 that we all would do well to hear and understand. He says, in Romans 4:18, that Abraham against hope believed in what was spoken to him by God. Abraham did not look at the physical, what he could see. He looked at the invisible, what was told him by God. When my oncologist told me some two-and-a-half years ago that I had cancer, it was pointless for him to show me the laboratory findings, the biopsy results or blood work. I do not look at the physical evidence. I listen to God’s Word. If God says, “whatsoever you shall ask in prayer believing, you shall have,” I believe Him. When God says, “and whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight,” I believe Him. (See I John 3:22 and John 14:13-14 and John 15:7). My faith is no different than the faith of father Abraham. We both believe and trust in the same Almighty God.
“And being not weak in faith, he (Abraham) considered not his own body now (as good as) dead,when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb (as she was ninety). He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was able also to perform…..Now it was not written for his sake alone….but for us also” (See Romans 4:19-24).
Faithful sons and daughters of the Most High, descendants of Abraham, need not be staggered by the CAT scan, the laboratory findings, the x-rays, the blood work, or the physician’s dire findings. Unless God has decreed that one’s life course is at its end then we can give glory to God by trusting Him to raise us up and grant us more years of good health and life.
“Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham!” (Galatians 3:7). The apostle to the Gentiles wrote those words to Gentiles. “So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham” (Galatians 3:9). And, like our father Abraham, we are not staggered at the promise of God to give us whatsoever we ask if we are walking in the same obedient steps of our ancient father. We KNOW we have the petitions that we desire of God through the goodness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Comfort one another with these words.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley