Still Looking Ahead

“…the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not… being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” (Romans 4:17, 21)

Sometimes we rule out a good possibility before there is any need to decide whether to pursue it. An idea comes to mind, and for a moment we can imagine it becoming real. Then we begin counting what would be required and what we do not have to make it happen. We may lack the money, experience, time, help, or opportunity needed to move forward. Those missing pieces matter. Yet nothing has actually happened to show that the idea cannot become real. Even so, we can quietly begin living as though it has already been ruled out.

Abraham and Sarah were an elderly couple in the Bible whom God had promised a child and a family that would grow into many nations. Having a child now seemed humanly impossible. Paul, an early Christian teacher, describes the God Abraham trusted as “the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.” Their present circumstances did not contain what was needed for that promised future. Yet the future God had promised was not limited to what Abraham and Sarah could provide for themselves.

Abraham did not have to pretend their situation was different from what it was. Paul says he “faced the fact that his body was as good as dead” and that Sarah could no longer bear children (Romans 4:19). His faith had room for both the promise and the facts. That may be where his story comes close to ours. We can say with complete honesty, “I cannot make this happen.” But it is different to say, “so nothing new can happen.” That goes beyond admitting what we cannot do and allows our inability to decide what is possible.

Abraham was “fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” Most possibilities we carry do not come with such a clear promise from God. We may hope a friendship deepens or an opportunity opens, but we do not know what will happen. Not knowing can make us restless enough to force a certain outcome, deciding God must make the possibility happen or giving up on it just to escape the uncertainty. The psalmist says, “My times are in your hands” (Psalm 31:15). Maybe our uncertainty can rest in those hands. We can leave the possibility with God without insisting that He has promised it to us.

When there was no human reason for hope, Abraham still believed what God had promised (Romans 4:18). He faced the facts, yet kept looking ahead because God had spoken. We may not have as clear a promise from God as Abraham did, but we know the same living God. Maybe we can leave what happens next in God’s hands and keep looking ahead, not because we know the outcome, but because we know the living God.

Prayer

Jesus, keep me from treating what I cannot make happen as something beyond what You can do. Help me hold uncertain possibilities with open hands, trust Your power, and keep looking forward with hope. Amen.