And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.   Hebrews 11:6

 

    We are in the midst of a series studying the power that is available to us as Christians through the exercise of our free will to choose.  We have focused at times on the battle that takes place within ourselves when our circumstances thrust us into those arenas of life where we are literally pressed into a place where we must engage in the "act of choosing".  And although difficult, how in that moment with our backs against the wall, we choose life, in choosing obedience to the word of God.  It is there that we can experience the exhilaration that is the "power of choice".

 

      As we can see in the above scripture, making the choice to believe God is paramount to our Christian walk.  In the garden of Eden when the devil came to lure Eve into sin, his primary focus was to get her to be convinced that she could not believe what God had said. Eve made the wrong choice ad suffered greatly because she did not make the choice to believe

 

     Faith, the Bible says, is the substance of that which is hoped for and the evidence of that which has not yet been seen in the natural realm.  Hebrews 11:3 asserts that the worlds which are seen were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

 

     So, the key is not to allow the natural realm circumstances (what we  see) to dominate what we believe, since the scripture is clearly telling us that faith was first, and God's word created that which we see to begin with.  Therefore, it takes precedence.  Faith in God and His word is superior to our circumstances when they fall contrary to the word of God. What weighs in the balance is our choice.  What will we choose to believe? God's word?  In His integrity? In His promise?

 

     God gave His word to Abraham, that He would make him the father of many nations, even though he was far advanced in years and had no heir. And Sara, his wife of many years had proven to be barren. Yet, God had promised that their descendants would be numbered as many as the stars of the heavens.  Abraham was faced with the choice of whether or not he would believe  the promise of God.  Romans 4:18-21 makes this comment:

 

       In hope against hope he believed, in order that he might become of a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, "So shall your descendants be."  And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waiver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able to perform.

 

     What an amazing passage.  It makes it clear that Abraham was not oblivious to the obstacles which he was facing in his circumstance.  He considered his body and the barrenness of his wife.  He wasn't living off in some stratosphere somewhere completely separated from reality.  What God had promised him was naturally IMPOSSIBLE!  Yet after considering all of that, the Bible says that still Abraham believed that God was able to do what He had promised.

 

       Abraham was willing to fight through the emotional challenges to his faith in spite of the circumstance before him, and believe in God's power and promise anyway.  This so impressed God, that God said that even though Abraham was a sinful man, because he believed God, his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness.  In other words, his believing God resulted in Abraham being placed in full and right relationship with God as though he had not sinned!  Besides the fact that he also received that in which he had believed.  His descendants did become so many, that over the generations, they have numbered beyond our ability to keep count.

 

     How different the outcome of Abraham's choice over the choice that Eve made.  And we can see that both of these instances teach us how our choices also affect not only us and our immediate families and circumstances, but have the capacity to deeply affect many others as well, and for even generations to come!

 

     One other interesting point in the passage we read from the book of Romans is in Verse 20 of Chapter 4 which says that Abraham grew strong in his faith, giving glory to God!  Hallelujah! Once again, we see how our wise and awesome God weaves the principles of praise into His amazing will. The Bible says that Abraham was the friend of God.  In short, he knew Him.  Abraham's relationship with the Lord led him to enter into and maintain a posture of praise and worship, thanksgiving and glory to the Most High.  Because he was so certain about God's faithfulness to perform what He had promised, he overflowed with love and glory to God.

 

     Let us take to heart Abraham's example.  Let us choose to believe that our God is faithful and full of grace and truth.  He is not a man that He should lie.  What He has promised, He will surely do.  It is simply up to us to choose to believe.  And to choose to worship and glorify Him, because we believe until the promise is made manifest.  We can do that.  His grace and His presence will help us.

 

     Let us in the body of Christ be committed to this walk of faith.  To persevere through, full of worship, creating a habitation for our glorious King through our praise!  A habitation that is full of faith -- a place where our God can manifest His promise and His word on our behalf!  Come and enthrone Him on your praise! Come and stand before His throne of grace and glorify Him as Abraham did and tell Him that you believe His promise!  You will be amazed at what He will do for you!

 

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