Take Him at His words..

Back some 4000 years, God told a man that he and his elderly wife would in fact have a baby, even though all odds were against them, even though their hair was already gray and their days felt numbered, God gave them a promise that He intended to keep.

I learned something today however, Abraham believed God before He knew God would in fact keep His promise. This is so key...because God saw in Abraham a faith that could move mountains, and Abraham believed that God would complete what He had started, the situation was bound for bring more glory to God.

"For this was how the promise was stated, 'At the appointed time I will return and Sarah will have a son.'" - Romans 9:9

But there was so much time in between the promise and the fulfillment of it, and don't you think that Abraham despaired? We know Sarah did! And I can so relate to that even though my waiting time was much less that hers...I can't imagine waiting a 100 some years. But point I'm picking up on, is that God fulfills His promises, and the time we wait for them is time that is meant to grow us, shape us and ultimately, bring God more glory as we are perfected in His perfect plans for us...

I am a slow learner. And I have learned this throughout my life numerous times, in many different ways but also, the fact that God can do, what is best because He is God and He can fortell what we cannot and therefore we are not to question. Easy to say, hard to do.

"But who are you O man to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, 'Why did you make like this?' Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?" Romans 9:20-21

In the midst of this passage on Abraham I became so convicted of my unbelief in His promises...

He does promise His best for me, and to care for me even more greatly than the finely robed Lillie's of the valley? Will He not dress His children that much more beautifully that He does the flowers of the field...?

The answer is yes...and yet I doubt.

In light of my sickness, my present trial, (that subsided a bit yesterday) and I recognized my need for Him, more than my need for health, I recognize my lack of faith until the promise feels as though it will be fulfilled..

When I found out I was pregnant, I doubted until the day I actually took the test that said "positive.." and then of course I believed. That day, as I fell to my knees on the bathroom floor, sobs wracking my body for the joy that was set before me with this child, I had no idea the trial I would soon endure through the beginning of that prayed for result.

So what I prayed for and prayed for, God knew was best at a certain time, and He also knew that my sickness would change my world in a way that I could never for see and that their were promises for me in that as well. I missed that one too! Until Sunday, and then today and "ironically" my study was on this subject of Abraham, faith and God's promises I see His hands so evident in my life, shaping me, making me moldable, and into the very best shape to be used for His purposes.

If I remain as hardened mud or clay in His hands, He can shape me only a little. And the shaping is quite painful..He has to press so hard and push down so intensely for even a little movement..

I do not want to be that way anymore, I want to be soft and easily formed into whatever shape He wants me in that will best fit His purposes for His plans and thoughts for me.

This is concept I am telling you friends, I missed my entire life. In the past I was my own person, unwilling to bend or move for anyone. It was my life, my way, now. God cannot use that.

So in light of all I have learned and processed with all of you, I pray you can learn from my mistakes, if their is something that you know He has told you, and that you are acting out against either as you wait for it to be fulfilled, or as you settle for something less than what He has planned for you. Stop and think about Abraham and his belief that God would do what God said He would do.

It is indeed true that when God saw Abram's faith, it was reckoned to him for righteousness; but it is also true that when Abram saw God, he reckoned Him able to perform what He had promised, so he was able to rest his faith on God's adequacy.
What was it that made Abram's faith so strong? The answer is that he did not look at the difficulty so much as he looked at the One who had promised. His eye was not resting on the problems, but upon the Promiser. When he saw the greatness of God, the might and majesty displayed before him on that summer's night, he said to himself, It makes no difference how I feel or what difficulties may be involved. The Creator of that multitude of stars is quite capable of giving me an equal number of descendants.

-Ray Stedman

May today be the day we take God at His word and become as mold able clay.