“After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram,
I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Abram also said, “Since You have given me no son, one who has been born in my house is my heir.” Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” (Genesis 15:1-4 NASB)
The passage above was incorporated in this week’s Victory Classes at our church. Victory Classes? Usually, these weekly classes are traditionally referred to as Bible Study, but since the study of the Bible always helps believers like you and me experience multiple victories on our Christian journey, we opted to call it Victory Class.
We discussed the passage from the perspective of doubting. Actually, we were studying Chapter 7 in Luke’s Gospel, but our topical search led us to a variety of passages. From the passage above we learned that even people of faith will be attacked by doubt at times. We learned that when we can’t see our future blessings, doubt is a way that we sometimes deal with frustration. Oh, we learned about disbelief in comparison to faith. We learned that it is a good thing to look beyond one’s doubting experience and see how they rebounded and continued in the faith, doing kingdom work. One participant put it this way, “We have to keep researching and studying beyond the designated focal text.” We learned that we will be in the presence of doubters, but we can be prepared to deal with doubt by being equipped by God’s word. Finally, we looked at examples that revealed that God knows His people and their human tendencies, but in spite of the knowledge, the good news we learned was that God is patient with us in our doubting times, and He will keep His promises to us, a people of faith, by doing exactly what He said He would do. Yes, we went over multiple things that would help us have victory in our Victory class.
This morning I looked at the passage again and I focused on God telling Abram, “Now look toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” God was referring to all the decedents of Abram that would come in fulfillment of the promise God made during His calling of Abram. See Genesis 12:1-3 if you want to verify what I just wrote. Abram would not be able to count all the stars in the heavens! He had to take God at His word. He had to take the word of the One who knows each of the stars by name. Abram would show some more doubt before the birth of his first son, but Abram would learn to take God at His word. Abram’s blessings would be great, but he would have to see them by faith, the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
The passage has meaning for us. On many occasions we have heard experienced saints testify by saying in regard to their blessings, “If I had a ten thousand tongues, I could not thank Him enough for all that the Lord has done for me.” Then the same saints would utter words similar to, “God has blessed me, and He is not finished blessing me yet!” Here is what I want you to recognize. Just as you cannot name all the things that the Lord had done for you, personally, you cannot, even if you tried; you cannot count the blessings that the Lord has waiting for you in the future! You can’t even see them all! If you think you can count them, think again! You can’t do it! But instead of being brought down by that inability to see what blessings lie ahead for you in the days and years ahead as your life story unfolds, be brought up by the fact that the Lord has some blessings, too numerous to count, waiting just for you! Do you want to know something? You experienced some new blessing already today, starting when He woke you up and started you on your way! And guess what? you will receive some more, yes, even more blessings on this day! I hope you take the time to see them, and I also hope that you will be encouraged by the fact that the Lord will bless those who put their faith in Him. Now, make sure you are in that category; “those who put their faith in Him.” Have a great Friday! Be blessed!
“God bless you and keep you, God smile on you and gift you, God look you full in the face and make you prosper.’” (Numbers 6:24-26 The Message Bible)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King