Walk by Faith not by Sight
Every morning I grab my coffee, turn on one of my favorite worship CD’s, open up The Word and wait upon the Lord. So few days ago I heard the Lord say “Don’t let what you can’t see keep you from my promised treasures that exist”.
“What”? I prayed. “Lord I do have faith in what you have promised me.” As I prayed that the Lord brought to my memory the words I had been speaking to myself just a week earlier. I doubted the promise, I was giving up, even questioning the gift God gave me. I sit here in my mid 40’s and it still had not happened. I had lost my faith!
A friend of mine says that “Faith is taking God at His word! It’s that simple, Right?
Well it wasn’t for me. I know God placed this dream or treasure in my heart when I was a child. However, I still had not seen evidence of it; therefore, I doubted that it even existed.
The Lord showed me we are in a fierce war that is a continuous struggle for our faith. Satan is determined to destroy the faith of Gods beloved. The stronger your faith is the greater Satan’s attack will be against it.
When our faith is shaken, shattered or lost, we become weak and turn to the world for something we can make happen. Just as Abram and Sarai did, I absolutely love this story.
Julies’ Paraphrase… from Genesis 12-21
At the age of 75 the Lord told Abram to leave his country and He would make Abram a great nation and He would bless him.
I don’t know about you but at that age I’m not sure I could do what the Lord was telling Abram to do.
So Abram leaves his country he takes his nephew Lot, his wife Sarai and all their possessions and people.
Abram had traveled a long distance and came upon the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. The Lord appeared to Abram here and told him “To your offspring I will give this land”. So Abram built an alter to the Lord.
Abram believed this promise of the Lord, even at his ripe age of 75! He didn’t question the fact that he and Sarai hadn’t been able to conceive children. It was not an issue. The Lord had promised him treasure and he had faith!
Fast forward a bit and they had all traveled to Egypt. Abram knew how the Egyptians were, he told his wife Sarai that they would think she is beautiful and kill him if they knew he was her husband. So Abram told Sarai to tell the Egyptians that she was his sister. That way they would all be treated well. The Egyptians took Sarai for their king.
After Sarai was released from the Egyptians she took her servant Hagar back to Abram and her people. Lot and Abram split up and later Abram had to rescue Lot.
The Lord makes a covenant, a promise to Abram, “your servant will not be your heir, you will have a son from your own flesh and blood”, Look up at the sky and count the stars -if indeed you can count them.” Then He said to him, “So shall your offspring shall be.”
Can you believe this? Look at the circumstances Abram is way past the age we would consider a man should conceive a child. Sarai, is barren how would she bear him any children?
So Sarai does what many of us do today when we don’t see God’s promises come to pass. She takes it into her own hands, looks to the world to fulfill the promise, and asks Abram to sleep with Hagar (her Egyptian servant).
At the age of 86 Abram becomes a father. Hagar gives birth to a son and named him Ishmael. You can imagine the heartache this caused Sarai.
During the next 14 years The Lord changed Abram’s name to Abraham which means father of many nations. Sarai’s name was also changed to Sarah meaning mother of many nations the Lord told Abraham that kings of many peoples will come from her.
Wow what an amazing word, but come on really, she is in her 90’s. Neither one gave up on what they were not seeing. They kept their faith in what the Lord had promised.
When Abraham was 100 years old Sarah gave birth to a son, they named him Iaasac.
The Lord’s promised treasure had come to pass.
God reveals treasure, promises and dreams on his time table; don’t abandon the treasures just because you can’t see it yet.
This has been a great lesson for me not to weaken in my faith, if God said it, it WILL happen. It’s just a matter of time.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith. Romans 1:17(NKJV)
