Fully Persuaded

Are you confident that God will bring to pass what He has said?  Is there any doubt in your mind?  What about your sins being forgiven?  What about Jesus returning?  Will we really be judged?  Just how sure are you?  I want to encourage you to have no doubt whatsoever!

           God is trustworthy, regardless how difficult or amazing a situation may seem.  To verify this statement, I present Abraham as an example of faith.  God assured Abraham that he would father a child with Sarah his wife.  “And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.  And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her:  yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.  Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old?  and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?  And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!  And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac:  and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him” (Gen. 17:15-19).

          Let us be plain.  From a physical perspective, Sarah is too old to conceive a child.  “Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well-stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women” (Gen. 18:11).  This fact did not escape Sarah’s mind.  In fact, “Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also” (Gen. 18:12)?  After this “…the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?  Is any thing too hard for the LORD?  At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son” (Gen. 18:13-14).

          That is really the backbone of our study.  Nothing is too hard for God!  When God has said something, we can be sure and confident.  It does not matter how far-fetched it may seem to us.  If God said it, then that does it, period!  “But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26).

          In the case of Abraham, there is reason why he is known as “the father of the faithful”.  Paul wrote, “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.  Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be” (Rom. 4:16-18).  When it seemed impossible from a physical perspective, Abraham trusted God so much that what was said would be brought to pass.

          Paul further wrote, “And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:  He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.  And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness” (Rom. 4:19-22).  That is the type of faith that we all need!

          We can rejoice in knowing that if we obey the Gospel, our sins are forgiven (Rom. 1:16).  We can have confidence in knowing that Jesus will return one day (2 Pet. 3:3-14).  We can be sure that Judgment will take place (Matt. 25:31-46).  There should be absolutely no doubt that what God has said is certain.  We, like Abraham, need to be “…fully persuaded…” that nothing is too hard for God (Rom. 4:21).
~ Corey Barnette