Word of Encouragement (01/25/2022)

And he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess." 8 But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" 9 He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." (Gen. 15:7-9).

Here, God reminds Abram of another promise: to give the land of Canaan to him (and his descendants). Abram’s response, which we can say is a prayer, is a question: “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” Can you blame him? God’s promises were so challenging to his faith! He came to the land of Canaan as a stranger and alien by God’s leading. The land was already occupied by the Canaanites and the Perizzites (Gen. 13:7) and the Amorites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, etc. (Ex. 23:23). How was he supposed to take this vast land from them?

Believing God’s promise is not that easy, is it? God’s promise confronts and challenges our perception of reality and possibility. We constantly rely on our perception to navigate through the complexity of our life’s journey. Every day, every moment, we make our decisions and chart the course of our actions according to it. It is closely tied to who we are. So, we don’t like it to be challenged, even by God’s promises! Our perception of reality and possibility seems more certain and reliable to us than even God’s promises. Having to believe in God’s promises feels like abandoning the secure footing of our own perception and stepping out onto who knows what?

But that may be the reason that faith is so important in our relationship with God: it requires our center of gravity to shift from ourselves to God. A self-centered faith is an oxymoron. Faith calls us to live not by the tangible things we see with our eyes but by what we know of God through His Word, which can seem so intangible and abstract. But if we have a difficult time with faith, it is because we have bought into a false premise that only what is visible is real and true. The Bible challenges that notion from the outset: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). There was when this physical, visible world did not exist; only God, who is a Spirit, existed. Paul declares, “...the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). It is only right that our center of gravity should be with the eternal, almighty God than with finite, transient beings like us.

To believe God’s promises is to break out of the small box of our perception of reality and possibility and go with the reality of God and the infinite possibility of His almighty power. We don’t have to try to figure out how God is going to bring about His promises to fruition on the small blackboard of our minds and imagination. We just need to trust God to be God, be still, and wait on God to “do His thing”! If our center of gravity is shifted to God, trusting in His promises is the easiest and most exciting thing to do.

We know that God fulfilled this promise to Abram and his descendants. What seemed impossible to Abram was not difficult for God at all. Let us not judge God according to our small minds and near-sighted and narrow vision. Waiting for God’s timing is difficult but what is the alternative? Would we rather keep on fretting and worrying and doubting God and allow our resentment to fester in our soul while God is at work to fulfill His promises to us? How much better it is to trust in our gracious heavenly Father and go to sleep in peace like a baby (v. 5)! Hebrews writer says, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb. 11:6). That means we can honor and please God by trusting Him. Would our God spit on our faces as we longingly look to Him in faith and hope?

‍