A Faith That Grows In Weakness

We meet for community group on Mondays and we are walking through Romans. Last night we went through Romans 4 and it struck me how Abraham's faith grew when his circumstances weakened. 

Romans 4:18-21

[18] In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” [19] He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. [20] No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, [21] fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

God promised a son to Abraham and God also promised to make a nation out of this son. Verse 19 says "he was as good as dead" (because he was around 100 years old) and "Sara was barren", so Abraham’s ability to have a son was physically weakening, but verse 20 says, "Abraham's faith grew".

I have so many promises from God, but when my circumstances weaken, so does my faith.  I never thought of the possibility of my faith growing when things in my life are falling apart!  Really!? My faith should be at its best when my life is at its worse?  I know it makes sense when I'm blogging about it, but I want it to make sense when I am suffering.

We also see in Hebrews 11:8-19 when Abraham was asked to sacrifice his long awaited son (Genesis 22), Abraham had no problem sacrificing Isaac because he believed God would keep His promise of making a nation out of Isaac.  This is amazing to me!  When God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham didn’t ask God, “Hey, wait a minute why are you asking me to sacrifice Isaac, when you promised to make a nation out of him?”  He basically said, “Sure, I know you will resurrect Isaac, because you promised me, You will make a nation out of him”. For Abraham, sacrificing Isaac and God making a nation out of him were both true…Amazing Faith!

God promises me, “Everything will work together for good” in Romans 8, so when my life blows up in ways that are to me unappealing, I say to God, “hey wait a minute, didn’t You promise me good things”?  I almost, always question God’s goodness in trying times. 

So today, I say “God thank you for growing my faith by turning my life upside down”.