Title: Let's Live a Life of Faith
Content Word: Romans 4:17-22
Topic: Let's live a life of faith
17. As it is written, “I made you the father of many nations,” he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that do not exist as though they were.
18. In the midst of hope, Abraham hoped and believed, so that he might become the father of many nations, as it was said, So shall your descendants be.
19. When he was a hundred years old, he knew that his body was dead and that Sarah's womb was dead, but his faith did not weaken.
20. Without faith, without doubting the promises of God, being strengthened in the faith, giving glory to God,
21. He was convinced that he was also able to accomplish what he had promised.
22. Therefore it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
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Different people have different ways of explaining ‘faith’. Some people say that faith is easy to use in everyday life. But for Christians, faith is more than that. In today's text, Abraham said that he hoped and believed when he could not hope. In the Bible, faith is not believing in something that is highly probable and I can hope for, but faith in something I cannot hope for and cannot expect. Faith is what we need to live a life of walking with God, who has strong and infinite power, even among our weak and foolish appearances. In the case of Abraham, he hoped and believed even when he could not expect to have children.
When God wants to use us, He uses us in the level of our abilities and our wisdom. If we believe in God, He will do things beyond our abilities and wisdom.
Rather than thinking about how a person like me can do God's work, we need to trust and trust in God's strong and mighty hand. It was not that Abraham himself wanted to become the father of many nations, but God called and used him according to his will. God did not tell us to be light and salt when he said you are the light and salt of the world, but he declared that you are the light and salt. What we need is nothing else, but obedience. And for that we need to have a vision. We must become all who have a vision for God, who dreams of saving the world through us.
Abraham believed in the 'God of resurrection' who raises the dead and the 'God of creation' who makes things that do not exist as if they exist. It is God who works beyond human limitations of death. They say that humans invent and make many things, but we see that all of them are ultimately accomplished through God's creation. It is God who made all things in this way. Those who have little faith in God have no choice but to experience little. We must believe in God as the Almighty God.
Faith is a certainty, not a vague expectation. The reason Abraham was able to offer Isaac boldly was because he firmly believed in God's promise that he would grant descendants through Isaac. We also need certain faith, not vague faith. We must gain this kind of faith through prayer and the Word.
I hope that we will also be able to hear the words of God, who saw the faith of a woman in the Bible and said, “Woman, your faith is great. In particular, I hope that all of us will become people of great faith so that we can be used worthy of God's plan to use us.