Have you ever been disappointed by God? Have you ever felt like he didn’t come through or that you did everything you knew how to and followed the faith scriptures only to be let down by him in a serious way?
If you have ever felt this you know how bitter it can be. Tin fact it seems to me that this feeling of God not coming through for us is often at the the heart of the crisis of faith that creates an atheist or agnostic. If you read some of our most vehement critics auto-biographies somewhere there is a crisis where they needed God to do something truely significant (a Mothers illness is one I read a while ago) and with a childlike faith they believed but didn’t get the outcome they desperately sought. The result of which was thattheir faith crumbled and they feel God let them down and a deep sense of bitterness grows.
What happens I think is that people take verses like todays and use them as slogans or miss-apply them so disapointment is almost guranteed. Today’s verse is an example of one that gets misquoted a lot:
“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 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.” Romans 4:18-21 NIV
Abrahams body was dead as far as having a child was concerned as was Sarahs his wife. However, they were told by God that they would have a family. The result is a million sermons on how they believed and we’re certain of the outcome (the meaning of Hope) and therefore fathered many nations.
The tick is though that Abraham believed the word of God not his own hopes but the ones God gave him. The word faith actually means ‘to be persuaded’ and is always a gift of God and NEVER something that can be produced by people. Think about how different that is from ‘just have faith’ or the ‘just believe and claim it so you get it’ type of view. Faith is about what God persuades us of through his word and sadly that is not always our preferred route.
If we are persuaded (have faith) that Gods word will always come true and that God is not a cosmic Amazon.com what can we hope for?
God promises you and me:
1. Peace of mind – Isaiah 26:3
2. You will never be alone – Hebrews 13:5
3. He truly cares and listens – 1 Peter 5:7
4. We will be persecuted. 2 Timothy 3:12
5. We are justified by Him, freely, by His grace. Romans 3:24
6. Help to pray. Romans 8:26-27
7. All things work together for our good. Romans 8:28
8. Nothing will separate us from the love of Christ. Romans 8:35
9. Our work in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58
10. God has created good works for us to do. Ephesians 2:10
11. God won’t let us be tried or tempted beyond what I can endure. 1 Corinthians 10:13
12. We can approach God with freedom and confidence. Ephesians 3:12
13. God has given us a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7
14. Resisting the devil, works. James 4:7
15 A new heaven and earth await me, called the ‘home of righteousness’. 2 Peter 3:13
Clearly this isn’t an exhaustive list and if you have others perhaps put them in the comments.
(Thanks for reading and if you found the post helpful it is always encouraging to get a ‘like’ and if you want to follow that would be awesome to)
The Greatest Commandment 