Here’s the deal:  Romans 4:13-22 gives us a portion of Apostle Paul speaking concerning the promises of God and how they are made by his own authority through grace and faith.  What I want you to catch on to in this entire excerpt is your faith in God’s promises should never be predicated on what is standard or what is existent or even what you have a preconceived notion about to already be true.  Unwavering faith challenges you to believe when you have not seen what it is you are believing to occur.  It is even more challenging when you believe against what you see for what you do not see.

In the beginning of this text, verse 13, Apostle Paul stated:

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.  For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, there is no transgression. (ESV)

This is really referring to the coming of Christ and how the atonement of Christ would fulfill the law making a benefit for those that believe in Him in deliverance from the consequences of transgression.  This also conveys this thought:  Why believe if you can “do works alone” and make what you need all come together.  He is asking why would you need a promise if the circumstances are already lined up in your favor?  These trials that you face are just what they are to be.  They have to appear to be a way in order for the promise of God given to you to produce faith which in the end supersedes the law of your situation.  Now, what is the law of your situation?  That is simply this:  It is how things are in the real and in the now in your life.  That means the law of your situation could be that you have been diagnosed with cancer and worldly law concerning diagnosing cancer is based on a set of standards and procedures of observations, tests, and conclusions that irrefutably determines that you have cancer.  When God gives you a promise that you have been healed or that the cancer will flee, your faith in that has to rise above the law of science that says you have it.  Apostle Paul said this is counted as the righteousness of faith because where there is no faith there is no need for a promise.

Let’s deal with the promise piece because if all I know is the law and what I can touch and test, then what can a promise do for me in comparison to what is true and real by the law?  Verse 16 starts by giving us this answer.  It says, “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all [of Abraham’s] offspring.  A promise can do you for you what the law couldn’t do for you because of the faith of Abraham.  Who was Abraham faith in?  Then Apostle Paul reminds us the potency of this faith and the promise behind it.  He said, remember, it was written, that God himself gave Abraham the promise, He said, yes God, the one who gives life to the dead and has the power to speak those things that be not as though they were.  Yes, that God, the God of Abraham.

What do you do when you have been faced with something tough or it seems like your circumstances will just have to be something you have to accept and live with and you have a word from God telling you that things can and will change?  Do you fully understand that the promise comes from God who speaks those things that are not as if it were actually here?

This is how Abraham responded to that.  Paul tells us in Verses 18-22: (paraphrased)

Abraham, who was against all hope, believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken.  Being not weakened in faith, he considered not his own body which was near death because he was about a hundred years old; neither did he consider the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.  He wavered not at the promise of God compared to his circumstances appearing unreal and hard to believe, but he was strong in faith, given Glory to God.  All the while Abraham was fully persuaded that what God had promised that He was able to also perform.  Because of this, it was given to him a consideration of righteousness.(ESV)

“Abraham who against all hope” is a stand along phrase that literally objectifies Abraham.  It isn’t a description but a literal placement.  Here’s how; Abraham is too old and feeble to produce a child, his wife is barren.  This together makes up Abraham’s situation.  This situation is Abraham, Abraham is this situation.  Therefore, “This Situation” is against all hope because “the hope” is the promise of God but Abraham “in his situation” which is his daily existence and the law of nature, is against the promise.  It’s against the promise because it’s contrary to what God said.  In spite of what was real for Abraham, it did not let Abraham lose hope in the promise.

What is it that is real for you today that God has given you a promise about? Sometimes you just feel like what you know to be your daily experience and existence too against what God has given you to hope for.  In this trail you should believe what God has said through faith.  The main idea of this passage is that faith ushers you to reap the benefits of a promise.  When you can believe far above what you actually see, you will see the manifestation of God move for you.  You must remember that when God gave you that promise concerning your situation, he was speaking those things that be not as though they were.  It is up to you to develop a faith that will make “the be not” turn into “be”.  You have to believe in that word like it was the last thing you will ever hear.  Keep it in the forefront of your mind and call it back out to God.  That type of faith will cause things to happen for you.

What inspired this note is I wanted and needed to remind myself that the promises of God are yes and Amen.  Sometimes a circumstance can be so real and etched in stone that you literally can see no way around it and all you can remember is: “but God you said…”

Have you ever been in a “but God you said…” place?  It gives you that last ounce of hope to keep believing.  Imagine being Abraham at 99 years old, Sarah at 90 and here they are being reminded, “oh yeah, y’all having some kids, and I’m not talking about one or two, but y’all will produce nations.”  I don’t know about you but I know I would’ve had the side eye going on.  It’s hard to hope when your reality is already against what you are hoping for.  It’s hard to believe for a financial miracle when your accounts are already depleted.  Or when you need a new car but your credit score is low.   It’s hard to believe your wife or husband won’t leave you when they are already gone.  It’s hard to believe that your child is going to come on back in when they never have a respectable word to say to you.  What do you do when your circumstances are against hope?  Do you allow you faith to waver?  Will you believe in what God promised you?

I used to tell people and I still do, all I have left is a promise from God.  And this was when I truly had nothing left for real.  When brokenness couldn’t become more broke, I said “all I have is a promise from God.”  People don’t understand how doors fly open for me.  Some say it’s favor, some say it’s gifting, but I tell you no word of a lie, it’s my faith in the promise that made them open.  I had to believe that there was no other way but upward and forward and that I didn’t have faith my circumstances remaining the same because God said otherwise already.  That doesn’t mean I never doubted or that I never wavered or wanted to throw in the towel, it just means that I never let go of the promise.  Don’t let go of what God has promised you.  Anything worth having is worth fighting for.  You will not cake-walk yourself to victory.  It’s going to take holding on to your faith with all that you have.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God.  And the Word of God came in many forms and fought on many levels.  Jesus came to establish faith, to make this faith that was symbolically spoken on in these verses become a reality, Jesus did that.