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Welcome to our daily drive time devotions through the book of Romans, Romans
chapter four this week, our fourth day and looking at that chapter, we started
out by looking at some things that keep us from faith alone in Romans chapter
four, trying to be good keeps you from faith alone, depending on ceremony
instead of commitment keeps you from faith alone and trying to get to faith
through the law keeps you from faith alone. In verses 18 to 21, we begin to look
together at how to live a life of faith alone. And again, Abraham is our mentor,
Romans four, 18 to 21, against all hope, Abraham in hope believe and so became
the father of many nations.

Just as it had been said to him, so shall your offspring be without weakening in
his faith. He faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was
about a hundred years old and that Sarah's womb was also dead, yet he did not
waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his
faith and gave glory to God being fully persuaded that God had the power to do
what he promised. Remember that God had promised to Abraham that he would have a
son.

And for about 25 years, Abraham and Sarah waited together for that son and no
son came. They had no hope left. He was about a hundred years old, Sarah's womb
was barren.

But the Bible says here that against all hope, Abraham continued to have faith.
And I love the phrase facing the facts. He continued to have faith.

Faith is not ignoring the facts. Faith is not closing our eyes to the problems
and pretending they're not there. Abraham looked at his own body, a hundred
years old.

He looked at Sarah, she was pretty old too. And still he recognized that God,
who is the God of the impossible, God could still give them a son. Abraham
waited the human impossibility of his becoming a father against the divine
impossibility of God being able to break his promise.

And he decided if God's God, nothing is impossible. The truth is faith goes
beyond reason, but it is not without reason. It faces the facts and then it
decides to trust God.

Faith grows by using our minds. It's a reasoned trust. There can't be any
believing without thinking.

And it's always reasonable to trust the trustworthy. God is trustworthy. God
keeps his promise.

How do I do that? How do I have real faith in God's promise in real life
situations? There's one thing to talk about Abraham, but what about my life?

How do I get from what I would call promise to promise? How do I get from
knowing God's promise to experiencing God's promise, from promise to promise?
Well, verses 20 and 21 of Romans 4 talk about that.

The Bible says of Abraham, "Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the
promise of God, but he was strengthened in his faith and he gave glory to God,
being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he promised. " These are
amazing verses. These are verses that sort of open up Abraham's life and reveal
to us the process of faith.

You walk through these verses, he didn't waver through unbelief regarding the
promise of God. As you walk through this process of faith, let me just use some
phrases to walk through this with us together. It starts with God's promise
regarding the promise of God.

Sometimes we try to start faith with our desire. You may have tried to do that.
If I wanted enough, God has to do it.

That's not a good place to start. It doesn't work. Sometimes we try to start
faith based on reason.

Oh, it makes sense that God would do this. There's all kinds of ways that we try
to jumpstart our faith. The only place you can start genuine faith is with God's
promise.

That's where Abraham started. He started with the promise of God. God had said,
"You're going to have a son.

" It started with God's promise, and then at the beginning of verse 20, it says,
"Abraham did not waver through unbelief regarding that promise. " There's the
decision. He didn't waver through unbelief, and it's easy to waver.

There's a lot of ways to waver through unbelief regarding some promise of God in
your life. Doubt is one way. I doubt it could ever happen, but selfishness is
another way.

All of a sudden, the promise becomes yours, and you think about all the good
things that the promise is going to do in your life to make you more money or
more popular or whatever. That's another way to waver through unbelief. Fear is
another way to waver through unbelief.

You're afraid. You're afraid of becoming the person that God wants you to be.
You're afraid of change.

We all are. Guilt is another way to waver through unbelief. You look at the
things in your past, and you think, "God could never keep that promise in my
life.

I'm not worthy of him keeping that promise. " If you feel like you are wavering
when it comes to having faith in God's promise, and by the way, who hasn't felt
that way? If you feel like you're wavering through unbelief, what do you do?

Well, continue to walk through these verses. The Bible says Abraham, instead of
wavering, was strengthened in his faith because he gave glory to God. It starts
with God's promise.

I make the decision that I don't want to waver in unbelief, and so I give glory
to God. That is extremely important. When you feel like you're wavering in
unbelief, here's the mistake most of us make.

We get the focus on ourself. We begin to think, "Okay, how can I give myself
more strength not to be afraid? Or how can I give myself less guilt by really
thinking about this and writing it down?

" When you're wavering through unbelief, here's the secret. You don't focus on
yourself. You focus on God.

You get the focus off yourself, and you get the focus on God. You give glory to
God. And by getting the focus on God, the next step in the process happens.

Then you are strengthened in your faith. It's interesting that in this chapter,
Paul indicates that there can be degrees of faith. He talks about people that
are weak in faith.

He talks about people that are strengthened in faith. How do I become
strengthened in my faith? I do it by giving glory to God.

And then I feel like, I don't know how to describe it. It's sort of like you
feel like your spiritual tank is full rather than empty. You are strengthened in
your faith.

What happens when you're strengthened in your faith by giving glory to God? You
continue to walk through what happened to Abraham. Verse 21 says, "He was fully
persuaded that God had the power to do what he promised.

" He became fully persuaded of God's power. Now listen, this is important. He
gave glory to God by faith, and then he became fully persuaded.

It was a process. I want, I think all of us want, instantaneous, fully persuaded
that God has the power. But it's a process.

I'm wavering in unbelief. And even when I'm wavering, I continue to give glory
to God. And as I make that choice, I will become fully persuaded that God has
the power.

If you expect it to happen in a moment or an instant, or in one prayer even,
you're going to be disappointed again and again. But if you give glory to God
even in the midst of wavering, then you'll find yourself becoming fully
persuaded. And so then this verse ends, "God had the power to do what he
promised.

" It ends with God's promise. Notice, it starts and ends with God's promise.
It's all about God's promise.

Here's what happened with Abraham. He trusted God's promise. He decided he
wasn't going to waver in unbelief regarding that promise, so he gave glory to
God.

And by giving glory to God, he was strengthened in faith, and he became fully
persuaded of God's power to do what God had promised. Starts and ends with the
promise. J.

B. Phillips has said, "The principle of faith is simply taking God at his word,
allowing God to be God in any and every circumstance. " Right now, let's take
some time to talk to God.

Let's pray a prayer of faith, a prayer of faith about God's promise in your
life. As I talk about God's promise, one might come to mind immediately that
you've been wavering about, struggling with, or wanting to trust in. If you
can't think of one right away, remember that God promises to use us in this
world to make a difference for his sake as salt and light.

God promises that he wants you and I as children of God to be shining lights in
this world to the people around us of what God is like. That's a promise. How's
that one going in your life?

You start with God's promise, that one or another one, and then as you pray,
say, "God, I know that's your promise, and I want to learn to trust your
promise, but you see my heart right now. You see that I'm wavering in unbelief
about this promise from you. It might be guilt, it might be fear, it might be
selfishness, it might be doubt, but I'm wavering.

And so, God, right now, I choose, instead of putting the focus on me to put the
focus on you, I give glory to you, God. I know that I can look forward to an
eternity with you. That's the end of the story no matter what.

And I know that you want to make a difference in my life and through my life in
this world. And so, I focus on you, and God, make myself available to you. As I
do so, I pray that you would strengthen me in faith.

I pray that in the days, maybe even the weeks and months to come, that you would
bring my heart to a place where it's fully persuaded of your power to do what
you have promised. And I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Tomorrow, we're going
to look together at the end of this chapter, Romans chapter 4, about faith
alone, as we look at verses 22 to 25.