Romans 4:19-21 “And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb. (20) He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, (21) and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.”
In the previous section we looked at Abraham as an example of one who was fully convinced in his mind that God’s word concerning the birth of his son Isaac was true. The above quoted passage of scripture gives us some insight into how Abraham became fully convinced in his mind on the subject, for it states that Abraham did not consider his own body which was already dead and neither did he consider the deadness of Sarah’s womb. The scripture does not say that Abraham denied the deadness of his body and the deadness of Sarah’s womb by pretending that they did not exist, he simply chose to completely ignore them. In other words, instead of focusing his thoughts on the reality of his existing circumstances he chose to focus his thoughts on the reality of God’s word. As Abraham continued to focus his thoughts on what God had said, his thinking slowly changed from initially doubting God’s word to becoming fully convinced in his mind that God’s word was true. Notice that this passage of scripture teaches us that Abraham “did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief”. Doubt and unbelief are synonymous terms, and as we have seen in the previous scripture the apostle James equated doubt to being double-minded. And so we see from this passage that Abraham transitioned from initially being double-minded on the issue to becoming single-minded about God’s word, until finally he was fully convinced in his mind that God’s word was true. When that happened Abraham’s faith was activated and God’s power was released, which caused his dead body to be strengthened by life, thus creating the new reality in his body that could now be both seen and experienced. As we said previously, this transition did not occur overnight, but rather it occurred slowly over a three month period as Abraham diligently focused his thoughts to line up with God’s word.
Michael E.B. Maher
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