Hope for Healing, Faith for Living Podcast

Abraham’s Example Of Staying Strong in Hope and Faith

Hello Friend, Thank you for joining me today. I do hope you are doing well. 

Today I want to share about Abraham and how he stayed strong in faith and did receive the promise.  

Remember our subject is prayer and experiencing answered prayer. We’ve seen Scripture after Scripture showing it is the Father’s will that we ask and receive, that we pray knowing He hears us and therefore know we have what we have asked for. 

Asking and Receiving is God’s will for us and because it is His will, our goal should be 100% answered prayer.  

I want to again go over a key verse in having answered prayer.

Hebrews 6:12 ESV

“so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

How did believers inherit or receive the promises? Through faith and patience. And, if you look at this verse in context you will see that hope, that confident expectation, plays a big part in it.

So it’s necessary that we keep our hope and faith strong until we see the promises we are believing God for to come to pass in our lives.

Abraham is a great example of steering hopeful and strong as long as it took to receive a promise and Romans Chapter 4 tells us how he did. 

Romans 4 ESV

13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 

16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness[b] of Sarah's womb. 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

Now I want to read verses 18 through 21 from the World English Bible because it will bring more clarity to some truths found in this passage.

 

Romans 4:18-20 WEB

18 Besides hope, Abraham in hope believed, (KJV version reads, “Who against hope believed in hope”) to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your offspring be.” 19 Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.

There were years passing by after God told Abraham he would make him a father of many nations. But Abraham stayed strong. He had hope, that confident expectation. And, his faith continued to grow.

Many of us, as time passes, begin to grow weak in faith. We begin to doubt. We begin to lose the joy of expectation.

How did Abraham not only stay strong but grew stronger?

The answer is in the passage we just read.

First, let’s talk about hope.

The Scripture from the KJV says, “against hope believed in hope”.

You see he was well aware of the conditions of his body and his wife’s body. They were too old to have children. In the natural, there should be no expectation at all for them to have children. But the Word of God gave them a reason to expect to have children. 

Remember, hope as referred to in Scripture means a confident expectation.

Against hope (the expectation to not have children because of their age), believe in hope (the confident expectation they would have children based on what God had said, on His promise).

If you have lost expectation for God’s promise to come to pass in your life, what do you do? You go back and look at the promise. You stay focused on the promise and let it change your expectations to match what God’s Word says. You will know when your expectations change to match what’s revealed in God’s Word when you start to have joy about it.

Now what about faith?

Let’s go back to our Scriptures.

19 Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.

He didn’t deny the condition of his body and his wife’s body but he didn’t spend time taking it into consideration either. If he had, he would have weakened in faith.

What he did was look to the promise God gave him. Because he chose to do that, he didn’t waver and actually grew stronger in faith as time went by.  The Word kept assuring him that what God has promised, he was able to do.

Abraham, despite the circumstances, continued to have hope and faith because he considered God’s promise more than the circumstances.

That’s the pattern we are to go by. Don’t deny the circumstances but rather don’t take them into consideration when you believe what’s possible. Believe what’s possible based on the Word of God.

Mark 9:23 ESV

And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”

Blessings in Christ,

Tim Dumas