Remaining Faithful and Thankful in the Midst of Trials | Romans 4:13–25

Abraham: Faithful in the midst of Trials

Abraham had received salvation through his faith in God, and God's promises, but it wasn't easy. Abraham faced a lot of challenges on his way to Mount Moriah which would become the Temple Mount.

Abraham faced the insecurity of following God into a foreign land, the frailty of his age, and the reality of Sarah's barrenness and yet he believed God.

"He did not weaken in faith...no unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith and he gave glory to God..."

Abraham is a picture of faithfulness in the midst of troubles. This doesn’t mean he was unscathed. We read in our text that “no unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ro 4:20). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

So how did Abraham have the faith to be joyful, and thankful in the midst of suffering?

Our Hope Must be Greater Than On Our Religion (v. 16a)

Abraham was the father of Israel because of his faith in God, not because of his adherence to religion. In fact, it was his faith that gave rise to his religion.

Romans 4:13 ESV

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

Romans 4:14 ESV

For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

Romans 4:16 ESV

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

Notice that it wasn’t keeping the rules but faith in Christ that gave Abraham hope. It was his hope in God that kept him through his sojourn.

In the same way, when we feel faithless and thankless, we must put our hope in Christ. Its only when I put my hope in the Lord that I have joy. Joy comes from the realization of God’s goodness and by remembering his promises.

One of the great problems of this day is that we have forgotten God and his promises.

God is little more than a mantra to some. He is not the powerful creator of all things, but rather a fairy tale to the modern man and nothing more than just a totem to others.

Modern man has either abandoned God or abandoned the thought of a loving, active God who cares about the affairs of men.

As the universalist minister Fulghum opines:

"Arguing whether or not a God exists is like fleas arguing whether or not the dog exists. Arguing over the correct name for God is like fleas arguing over the name of the dog. And arguing over whose notion of God is correct is like fleas arguing over who owns the dog." ~ Robert Fulghum

"This deep agnosticism is more than the refusal of conventional agnosticism to take a stand on whether God exists or whether the mind survives bodily death. It is the willingness to embrace the fundamental bewilderment of a finite, fallible creature as the basis for leading a life that no longer clings to the superficial consolations of certainty." ~ Stephen Batchelor, Scottish Buddhist Author.

Both these attitudes that so pervade modernity leave us empty and hollow when faced with the realities of the cold, dark reality of life in a sinful world. Both leave us breathlessly alone and hopelessly hopeless.

But Abraham could have faith in the face of his age, his situation, and his wife’s infirmity because of his trust not in his religious rites, but in the God who made his promise.

This leads us to our second truth For me to remain faithful and thankful in the midst of trials:

God Must Be Bigger than Our Problems (v. 17-18a)

For Abraham, his God was bigger than his doubts or fear. God was bigger than the troubles he faced, these included the people he faced. One of our biggest problems is not only the hopelessness of our situation, but also in how “big” we make others.

One of the problems with us is that we live life often worrying inordinately about what people think about us.

We worry about the perception of all other.

“Fear” in the biblical sense…includes being afraid of someone, but it extends to holding someone in awe, being controlled or mastered by people, worshipping other people, putting your trust in people, or needing people. We are more concerned about looking stupid (a fear of people) than we are about acting sinfully (a fear of God).”

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man

This sin almost sank Abraham twice as he lied to Abimelech and Pharaoh.

But it was when Abraham was able to relinquish his fear and doubt and trust GOd that he was able to find hope. Why? Because God became big to Abraham.

Romans 4:17–18 (ESV)

as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”

Abraham had hope in God against the kind of hope that Abraham could humanly have. Abraham’s hope centered on God’s promise rather on his own physical situation. God had promised him an heir, and despite his and Sarah’s advanced age...

Osborne, G. R. (2004). Romans (p. 118). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Because Abraham’s God was so big he could have joy!

Our Walk Must Grow Deeper than our Doubts

Abraham wasn’t perfect. He did face doubts in his life.

In v. 20 3 find God’s Word note this:

Romans 4:20 ESV

No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,

Genesis 15:7–8 ESV

And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”

Notice, Abraham had his doubts, but in this moment, those doubts were swallowed up in Abraham’s trust and realization of Who God is:

Genesis 15:17–21 ESV

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

From this moment, Abraham’s faith grew.

In the same way, our faith needs to grow. It needs to grow bigger than our doubts. How does that happen?

Luke 6:46–49 ESV

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

Notice the two people. One has heard God’s words but doesn’t practice them. His faith is shaky.

The other hears the words and does them.

Abraham’s faith grew each time he tested the Lord’s promises. Each time God asked Abraham to do something and to test and try him and God did what he said, God strengthened his faith.

Just as Peter’s faith was strengthened on the waves, Thomas’ faith was strengthened in the upper room, and God strengthened Paul’s faith through his weakness (2 Cor 12:8-10) our faith is strengthened when we do what God commands and see his faithfulness.

But the problem with many of us is that when we see Cana spread out before us, or when we see the waves crashing on the deck of the boat of our lives, or when we feel the pain of our besetting sin or physical handicap we get frozen, nailed in place by fear and doubt.

We will never grow until we take the first step of faithfulness. And we will never celebrate God’s goodness, and provision if we never step out of our city, and step into Cana.

As long as God is small, our fears are big, and our faith is untested we will never be able to stand when trials come.

So what about you? Are you ready to step out of your Haran and into your Cana? Are you ready to get out of the boat and follow Christ?

For some it may mean taking the first step of faith.

For some it may mean trusting him with baptism and church membership.

For others it may be doing what God commands.