God knows my needs

My mother often said, “We must need it or we would not be getting it.” She usually meant the weather, but this sticks with me as a good attitude toward life, even toward the way God speaks to me.

During the past few days, my devotional readings are encouraging me to believe God. Has God made a promise? Then believe He will keep it. Has God said something will happen? Then believe it will happen.

Today’s verses are in the same vein. Paul is writing about Abraham in Romans 4:20-22. “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore ‘it was accounted to him for righteousness.’”

Abraham was about a hundred years old, his wife about ninety. Many years prior, God had promised them a son. Sarah remained barren all that time, yet Abraham “did not waver” and was “fully convinced.” If God said it would happen, Abraham believed it would happen.

In his old age, Abraham never stopped trusting God. His body seemed useless and his common sense told him that neither he nor Sarah were physically able to bear children, yet faith was stronger than normal reasoning. Reasoning considers human experience and human power whereas faith considers God and how He has already proven what He can do.

Abraham’s faith determined that trusting God, no matter what, was the right thing to do. He could not see or imagine this promised child but the promise was good enough because God made it.

Moses is another example. Hebrews 11:24-26 describe his faith. “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.”

Moses could have been a great leader in Egypt and enjoyed tremendous power, prestige and wealth. Instead he decided to walk with God. He walked out of that place into a wilderness where he was powerless apart from God, disrespected and rebelled against by his people, and only owned what he could carry on his back. By faith he knew that this was the right choice, and even though he never entered the land promised to God’s people, God had a far greater reward waiting in glory for this faithful man. For him, the promise was good enough.

We heard a sermon last week that weighed faith against what we see with our eyes, or value with our senses. Faith often seems unreasonable and may even seem ridiculous. We considered human ideas of doing things and how faith might fly in the face of all that makes sense, yet if God says it, we can believe it, not because our minds can figure it out, but because God is faithful and true to what He says.

I don’t know if anything major is coming up in my life that is going to require faith ‘no matter what,’ but even if life stays much as it is (there is no such thing as normal), trusting God is the right thing to do. I keep hearing this over and over, and I must need it or I would not be getting it.