Jump From Your Perch of Safety Into………..

“God………calls things that are not as though they were.”  Romans 4:17

 

What is Paul talking about in this scripture?  It is the reason why “Abraham in hope believed” (v. 18).  How could Abraham possibly believe in his advanced age that he would father a child.  It seems absurd, an impossibility of dramatic proportions and yet God called him “the father of many nations.” (Gen. 17:4) long before there was any indication of fulfillment.  And Abraham thought of himself as a father, because God had said so.  That’s genuine faith – believing and declaring what God has said is so.  Stepping out on what appears to be thin air and finding solid rock beneath your feet. 

Boldly declare what God says you have in Him and He will accomplish what you believe.  But genuine faith and trust must be exhibited.  You have to trust with your entire being.  Who else besides Abraham stepped out into thin air?   Daniel had to go into the Lions Den, Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego went into the fiery furnace, Calab had a ‘different spirit’, Esther saved her people, Moses brought the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage, Noah built a boat in the middle of the desert, Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem one brick at a time and the list goes on and on.

We have to be willing to live by faith, not hoping or desiring to live any other way.  Thomas C. Upham said We must be willing to have every light around us extinguished, to have every star in the heavens blotted out, and to live with nothing encircling us but darkness and danger.  Yes, we must be willing to do all this, if God will only leave within our soul an inner radiance from the pure, bright light that faith has kindled.

We must come to the moment when we jump from our perch of distrust, leaving the nest of supposed safety and security behind and trusting the wings of faith.  We must be like baby birds testing the air with untried wings.  At first we may feel as if we will fall to earth.  The fledgling chick may feel the same way, but it does not fall because its wings provide support.  Yet even if its wings do fail, one of its parents will sweep under it and rescue it on strong wings.

God will rescue you the same way.  Trust Him, for His “right hand sustains” (Ps. 18:35).  You might find yourself asking, “Do I step out onto nothing?”  That is exactly what the bird is seemingly asked to do, and we know that the air is there and that the air is not nearly as insubstantial as it seems.  And you know that the promises of God are there and they certainly are not insubstantial at all.  Do you still think it unlikely that your poor helpless soul will be sustained by God’s great strength?  Has God said it will?  Will your tempted and yielding nature will be victorious in the fight because God has said it will?  Will your timid and trembling heart find peace?  Has God said it will?

If God has said so, surely you don’t want to suggest that He would do any less that what He has promised, do you?  If God has spoken He will fulfill it.  He has given you His word – His sure word of promise – don’t question it but trust it with all your heart.  You have His promise, and in fact you have even more – you have Him who speaks the words, “I tell you the truth……….”        Trust Him!

I am the LORD, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, “Seek me in vain.”  I, the LORD speak the truth; I declare what is right.  Isaiah 45:18b-19