Take a moment to read Romans 4:13-25 before reading the devotional below.
Most 99-year-olds probably figure that their child-bearing days are done. If God told you that you were going to have a whole lot of descendants and you would be the “father of many nations,” yet you were aging out of that possibility, you’d probably figure you heard wrong. But God doesn’t consider earthly possibility a limitation. He does what he says he will do. Period. It doesn’t have to make sense, seem likely, or be humanly possible.
Abraham followed God, but he wasn’t perfect. If you read his story in Genesis, you’ll see that he even tried to take God’s promise into his own hands by sleeping with his wife’s maid. He had faith even though in that decision it led him into a poor decision. He believed. He waited. He never gave up hoping. That’s what relationship with God is all about. Jesus made it possible for all of us to enter into relationship with God through faith.
Here’s your freedom for today: you can keep on hoping. When you have faith, you keep your eyes on eternity. Life on earth has its ups and downs, and I often ask myself, “Does this daily trial or trouble matter in the spectrum of eternity?” If I keep saying yes to God and doing what he says (things like love God, love others, forgive everyone in the same way I hope God forgives me), then I’m living my life as a life of faith. Any obedience on my part is because of my love for God and my desire to serve him, not an effort to earn a spot in his kingdom. When we stop trying to earn God’s favor, we begin to demonstrate hope and faith. Everything becomes about his kingdom, not our own striving.