Romans 4:13-25 Response

David’s sermon on Romans 4:13-25 had three points: hoping when hope is against you, not wavering in faith when everything goes wrong, and believing God’s promises because He himself promises.

After his sermon, I thought of examples of different depths of faith God has shown us in the Bible.  Of course, Abraham was the example of great faith. Abraham knew his and Sarah’s physical impossibility of having a child, yet he was fully persuaded to trust God’s promise because the one promising was God Himself (Hebrews 11:11 “–-because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.”). Later on, in Gen. 22, when God asked Abraham to kill his precious son as a sacrifice to Him, he still obeyed. The same God who told Abraham that he would have many descendants, also asked him to sacrifice his own son, Isaac.  I’m sure it did not make any sense to Abraham, and yet, he did not waver in faith, and in the end, he passed God’s test.

An example of wavering in faith is found in Matt. 14:29-31. “Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’” 

Even though Peter started out with great faith, his focus was shifted to the wind, and his faith was weakened. In these days, texting or talking on a cell phone while driving is dangerous, because one’s focus is shifted from watching the road, and an accident could happen.  In the same way, when we focus on our hopeless selves or surroundings, our faith weakens. We have so many examples of strong faith in the Bible. Knowing God by reading His Word and praying to Him are ways of turning our focus from ourselves to God.

As human beings go through individual sufferings and hopelessness in life, some might try to ignore them awhile. Others might turn to alcohol or drugs to escape from them. In his sermon, David said that faith is trusting God’s promise.  For Christians, facing hopeless reality with a complete trust in God is what God wants us to do without escaping reality.  Hudson Taylor said that the better translation of Mark 11:22 “Have faith in God” would be “Hold on to the faithfulness of God.”  I like that.  Yes, God is the faithful one. When our focus is upon God’s many wonderful attributes, we will be led to praise and thank Him in our daily walk in this world. So like Abraham, against all hope, in hope, let us hold on to the faithfulness of God, who delivered His own Son to death and raised him to life for our justification.

~Maureen Oh