Romans 4:18 “who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul teaches us that Abraham believed God in hope. The context of the passage is that God had promised Abraham that he would become the father of many nations. The scripture actually says that contrary to hope, in hope, Abraham believed God. When the scripture says that Abraham believed God “contrary to hope”, the hope that it is referring to is natural hope based on human experience. Natural human hope does not look to the supernatural; it always looks to that which experience dictates can take place in the natural. In the natural Abraham’s situation was hopeless; for at the time that God made this promise to Abraham he was eighty-six years old and Sarah his wife was seventy-six and had been barren her whole life. And so in the natural there was no hope for Abraham and Sarah to have a child, and that is why the scripture says that “contrary to hope”, Abraham believed God. But the scripture goes on to say that Abraham believed God “in hope”. So what hope does the scripture refer to when it says that Abraham believed God “in hope”? The hope that Abraham had when he believed God was his hope in the supernatural ability of the Almighty God. In the natural Abraham’s situation was hopeless, but in the supernatural Abraham’s situation was full of hope, because God Himself had made the promise to him that he and Sarah would have a son. In the same manner, because our hope is in the supernatural ability of the Almighty God our hope is based on the promises of God which are given to us. In other words when God promises us something it means that at some point in the future we can expect to have the manifestation of that promise in our lives, if we exercise our faith in His promise. Abraham waited fourteen years for the manifestation of God’s promise of his son Isaac being born. And so while we wait for the manifestation of God’s promise we look forward in hope to seeing His promise coming to pass in our lives.
Michael E.B. Maher
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