Don't Stop Believing...

 I'm getting the stank eye from my "too cool" preteen daughter.  I can't help it...  I'm jamming to my own inner concert with Journey.  You know the one, sing it out with me wherever you are... "Don't Stop Believing... Hold on to the Feeling."  There you go.  You're feeling it too. 

I know it's easy to stop believing.  It's happened to me.  I had given up on my hopes, dreams, and prayers ever being answered. 

It might be a marriage that's in shambles.  It might be a rebellious teenager.  It might be a sick loved one.  I don't know what it is today, but you've given up believing.  I know you have, because believing is HARD and we don't do hard.  You've resigned yourself to just existing... this is all there is.  You've even gotten used to the numbness in your soul.  The heartsick of hopelessness. 

I know how you feel.  I had given up too.  Since it's been this long it will never happen.  I had even gotten angry at God for ever making me hope in the first place.  Hope-hurts, especially when it's dashed again and again. 

Abram felt that disappointment as well.   Think about how he must have felt.  Twenty-four years had passed since God came to Abe the first time and said "Leave and go and I will bless you."  Abe did his part.  He left and went and for what?  His life has been a little frustrating.  He's 99 and he's living with two unhappy women.  Poor guy.  I feel for him.  I know what it's like to live with a disappointed woman (me)...  she doesn't even have to say anything, she just mopes around all the time, silently letting you know how you have screwed up her life.  

God where are you and what are you doing?  Why?  Why did you make me hope all these things?  Why aren't you doing what you said?  WHY?

Yet here we are again.  God comes to Abe and says "And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you EXCEEDINGLY." 

Abe does the only thing that a person can do in that situation... He falls on his face before God.  Can you imagine the relief that Abraham must have felt to know that all he had believed was being confirmed?!  Sometimes we just need a reminder.  Sometimes we just need confirmation that we have NOT made all this up.  Sometimes we need a little help to believe.  We are not alone.  You can read through the word of God and see it repeated over and over again...  It's hard for us to believe, but thank God he is willing to remind us again and again.

The LORD says I will make my covenant with you.  He is making a promise to Abe that isn't dependent upon Abram.  He is telling Abram "I'm going to do the impossible." 

God is about to bring life from a dead womb.  WHAT IS TOO HARD FOR HIM TO DO FOR YOU??? 

He's not just bringing life from death....  He's going to do it EXCEEDINGLY.

Exceedingly- to an unusual degree; very; extremely.

He's going to do it so big that everybody is going to know that He did it.  You know why?  Because God wants the world to see HIM, to know him, to give him GLORY. 

He wants to do it so big that you are on your face, overwhelmed by thanksgiving because you had given up.  You stopped believing... 

I love the fact that God just keeps on talking to Abe while he's on his face...  He keeps on speaking his promises to him, while Abram is completely overwhelmed by the presence of EL SHADDAI (The ALMIGHTY GOD).  

"And as for me, BEHOLD, MY COVENANT is with you, and you shalt be the Father of Many Nations." vs4

MY COVENANT.  His PLAN.  HIS PURPOSE.  This is not just about you Abe.  This is BIGGER than you.  This is bigger than your hopes and dreams.  BEHOLD I'M DOING SOMETHING. 

We have the short term in view.  Our little bitty lives.  God has eternity in view.  God had chosen Abe, because God had a BIG thing he was doing. 

JESUS, the Messiah, the SAVIOR was coming through the descendants of Abraham.  Abraham was going to be the Father of MANY NATIONS...  He is the Spiritual Father of ALL those who believe in Christ in EVERY NATION.

This isn't dependent on YOU.  This isn't about your vapor on earth.  This is about your descendants.  DON'T STOP BELIEVING, just because it hasn't happened YET...  God has a bigger plan than you do that He is working out in HIS TIME.  It's NOT YOUR TIME. 

It might take longer than you wanted, BUT GOD IS WORKING HIS PLAN OUT IN THIS WORLD and you get to be a part of that...  SO KEEP ON BELIEVING. 

"Now unto HIM, who is ABLE to do EXCEEDINGLY, ABUNDANTLY above ALL that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us." Ephesians 3:20

How can you continue to believe today?  The bible says that "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing the WORD OF GOD."  If you want to increase your faith.  If you want to keep on believing you have to get in this book and allow God to increase your faith. 

"But without Faith it is impossible to please Him: for he who comes to God must believe that HE IS, and that HE is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Heb 11:6

My hope has been restored.  My faith has been strengthened.  I believe again because as I read Abe's story, God is whispering "Don't Stop Believing".