Romans 4:18

Romans 4:18 says, 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. Abraham, or Abram as he was known when he was called, had no reason to believe that God would use him in such a spectacular way.  He could only hope through faith.  He had to believe in the reality of God's promise and act on it.  Our only hope today is to believe through faith in the reality of the promise of God that we are saved through faith in Christ and to act on it.  There should never be a wavering of our faith.  When we accept Christ as our Savior and follow Him, we don't need to wake up every morning wondering if we are truly saved that day.  Just as Abraham through his faith belonged to God forever, so do we. Abraham was not perfect when God called him, nor did he become perfect. Verse nineteen adds, 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 Sara’s womb:  Abraham could have looked at the facts and decided that there was no way that God could carry out his promise.  We can either believe in the power of God or the facts that the world presents to us.  The world tells us that we are foolish or delusional to believe that we can be saved by putting our faith in Christ, who died over two thousand years ago.  We either accept God's word as truth and come to Him through faith, or we look at the world and say that salvation makes no sense and cannot be true. Verse twenty continues, He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; Abraham did not stagger at the promise of God, and neither should we.  We need to look to the power of God and not the negativity of the world.  Sometimes, if we look at a situation strictly from the facts the world presents, we may want to question our faith, but we must never waiver in our faith in God.  Verse twenty-one states, And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.  Abraham believed that God could perform what He promised, and we so should we.  Verse twenty-two adds, And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.  Abraham's belief, his faith in God, was what brought him into a right relationship with God, and not his following of any ritual, and the same is true for us today. Verse twenty-three continues, Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;  This is why we today have hope.  The promise of God was not to Abraham alone, but to all who believe.  Verse twenty-four states, But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;  God's promises are for all who believe He raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.  There is nothing added to this requirement. Through faith in God alone and His atonement through Christ can we find salvation.  Verse twenty-five adds.  Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.   Christ died for all people for all time, and through His death and resurrection alone can we find hope.