After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great.” Abram said, “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And He (God) took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

                                                                                                                             Genesis 15:1-2, 5-6 

Read: Genesis 15

A man and his wife, getting up there in age and childless, that was the situation. Abram and his wife Sarai (later named Abraham and Sarah) had no children therefore they had no one in which to pass on an inheritance. But then God entered into the situation and everything changed.

I love how God began His interaction with Abram with the words, “Do not fear.” This was not troubling news rather this would be God’s announcement of good things to come. God would be Abrams shield of protection and his reward. Abram must have wondered what God had in mind and it would soon be revealed to him.

God had Abram look up into the night sky and observe all of the stars. That was representative of the number of his descendants. Everyone who belongs to Jesus Christ is now counted among those offspring. This is to what Paul is referring when he states the following:

Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.

                                                                                                            Galatians 3:6-7 

But I believe that the most important part of this account for Abram was that, “he believed in the Lord; and He (God) reckoned it to him as righteousness.” We see it over and over. Faith equates to the righteousness of a person. We will have days when we are doing rather well, seemingly making all of the right choices. But there are also days in which we tire or fail or simply run out of patience. It is in those moments that we must remember that our faith is to be placed on the promises of God not on our own performance.

Believing God for the impossible, that is what is at stake. Do we continue to live our lives with an earthly mindset only or do we understand that the Creator of the universe can do “far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think?” (Ephesians 3:20) For Abram, he believed in the promises.

This reminds me of an account that we see during Jesus’ earthly ministry. A father, greatly disturbed over his son, comes to Jesus. His son is demon-possessed and is in dire need of healing. In what seems to be a move of desperation, the man approaches Jesus. His words tells it all:

And He (Jesus) asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” 

                                                                                                                   Mark 9:21-22

Jesus’ response is amazing:

And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”

                                                                                                            Mark 9:23-24

This man, desperate to help his son, realized that he had an amount of belief but was still in need of Jesus “helping his unbelief.” What an amazing response on the part of Jesus and what a tremendous request from the man for help, not only with his son, but also with his faith. Of course the outcome is worth reading again and again:

When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.” After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, “He is dead!” But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up.

                                                                                                               Mark 9:25-27 

Why is it that we easily accept the fact the God spoke the universe into being, gave an elderly couple children, drove out an evil spirit from a suffering child, yet do not believe in those types of miracles in our own lives? Could it be because we have been conditioned to accept the conventional wisdom that those kinds of things no longer happen? Jesus gave us these words. It is a tapestry of what the Christian life is to be…in any generation:

“All things are possible to him who believes.” 

                                                            Mark 9:23 

“Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.”

                                                                                                                 Mark 11:24 

“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” 

                                                                                                                             John 7:38

Let’s begin believing the impossible!