The promise

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,

For the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness. Psalm 115:1

 

Read Genesis 15:1—6

Here I stand at the beginning of the response of humanity to God’s promise. I stand in the line of Abraham. All he could do was to trust God. No other option was an option. Yet the one option was impossible. Abraham and Sarah could not have children, but what else could they do? If not trust God? In himself Abraham had no future. What else, truly, can I be but helpless? For there is no one else to turn to if not to the God who promised himself to me. My helplessness becomes a gift to me when it brings me to this point, when I simply have to believe in the promise of God. Then I am in the long line with every, yes, every single Christian believer: ‘If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.’[1]

 

God, faithful to yourself, faithful to your promise, faithful to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, an aged frail man, father of barely trustworthy men; and God of their wives, Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel; God who promised a future and a land and a blessing; who, when you repeated this promise to this family, looked through them to the blessing of the world; who, within the promise to them promised your Son to the world; who promised an inheritance that would be opened even to me: I thank you tonight for my own helplessness. Surely this day has reminded me of my helplessness in some way, but if it has not, your very word to me has. I have no grounds for trust in myself. Tonight, afresh, with Abraham, let me trust your faithfulness and the promise of Christ, my faithful Saviour.

[1] Galatians 3:29