What does Abraham's Promise Has To Do With Us?

August 27 2018

Reading: Romans 3 & 4

After reading chapter four I got really confused on the idea that we the Gentiles receive Abraham's blessings once we believe by faith. So I went ahead and dug around the bible trying to understand this but it still made no sense. The only thing that I had understood was that Abraham's descendants are not necessarily his kids by blood but it is anyone who believes in Jesus through faith. I then went back to my original problem and decided to break it down. The first question I had was:

1. What are Abraham's Promises?

I went back to read Abraham's story which is Genesis 12 to 22 and I marked/wrote down all the blessings God gave him. From the top of my head I'm going to try find a connection with the promises and us "Gentiles".

- God promised him

a. a great nation ➝

b. to bless him ➝ I'm pretty confident God blesses his kids (i.e: Matthew 5,

c. make him famous ➝

d. Bless those who bless him ➝ Throughout the Bible people who aided God's children was blessed or aided.

e. Curse those who curse him ➝ God revenges for us ( Hebrews 10:30)

f. All families will be blessed through him ➝

g. Protection ➝ God sends his angels to guard us (i.e: angels helping disciples & Psalms 91)

h. A great reward➝ Our reward is in heaven (i.e:Matthew 6)

i. Great amount of descendants

j. He will give Canaan to Abraham's descendants ➝ Victory over enemy

In doing that I felt like there was an obvious connection there that I was willing to accept. Being somewhat satisfied I moved on to my next questions which was a word that pops up in Romans a lot but it is also a big piece of salvation. The question is "What is Faith?" So I went to a verse I vaguely remembered and reread it and sort of came up with my own components of faith. Hebrews 11(NLT) goes ahead and say "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. It gives us assurance about things we cannot see." What stood out to me was the word "confidence" which means having a "firm trust" in someone. That is hard for me to imagine, just having a firm trust in someone but that is what God is asking from me. He does not want to me be shaky or move like the wind but have a strong confident in the Lord that He will provide, He will protect, He loves me and that He will hold onto everything he said. I will like to believe that is where I fall short on but then again God said even having faith like a mustard seed can move a mountain (Matthew 17:20).

I'm a bit confused about this to be honest because he does say having faith like a mustard seed can move a mountain but I feel like I have to have more. I guess that's where the logic "come as you are" to God applies and as I grow in him my faith will also grow. God also never asked for perfection (even though at times it feels like it is needed) so I would like think that he is not expecting us to have 100% faith. I mean we are humans...my mom once told me that we are capable of having faith in Jesus because the Holy Spirit aids us. As humans we are not capable of having much faith in the Lord...I think that is an interesting topic. Now that I'm typing this out I'm getting into a whole different topic which is interesting. I will probably get back on that later on today or tomorrow. How does the Holy Spirit help our Faith?

Before I end this, I continued reading Hebrews and I oddly have people names highlighted in there explaining how they had faith. Therefore, I made my own list of what are the traits of having faith and I wrote the people's name next to it.

- If you have faith you will:

1) Obey God ( i.e:Abraham & Noah)

2) Give God your best (i.e: Abel)

3) Please God (i.e: Enoch)

4) Believe God (i.e Sarah)

According to the Bible it says that a lot of these people (if I understood it correctly) looked to a better place and not their past life. It also states that Abraham and Sarah did not see their promise come through because they died yet, throughout their whole life they held onto and believed God's words. I feel like that is a mindset I should develop. I should see that this World is not my home and the situation I am in is not here forever. But yeah, that was my daily devotion for today...