ALL I EVER NEEDED

WAS FAITH IN HIS NAME

Have you been waiting for a long time for your miracle, your answer to prayer?  Sometimes we must wait, but it is never too late for God.  He is eternal, and He sees the end from the beginning of a situation.  Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  Because of this we should be encouraged, for God will finish what He begins.  He tells us that He has started something wonderful in your life, and He is not finished with you yet.

“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” Philippians 1:6

We see Abram in the 17^th chapter of Genesis, 99 years old, and still waiting on God’s promise of a son.  This is God’s fifth affirmation of His covenant with Abram.  Twenty-four years have passed since the first promise was given.  God later changed his name to Abraham and Sarai’s to Sarah.  Waiting on God was a test for Abram, and it can be a test for us also.

God has a reason for all His delays.  He was waiting for Abram to come to the end of himself.  These tests and delays Abram experienced strengthened his faith in God and made him aware of his own weaknesses.  Before God can do something for us, we must learn how weak and helpless we really are.  God tests each one He calls.  He tests for the purpose of purifying and strengthening the believer’s faith.  Abram had been tested five times, and he passed with flying colors, other times he failed.  Why does God allow testing?

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.  And when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord” James 1:2-7.

We are encouraged to endure with Joy (vs.2), have perseverance, hang in there! (vs. 4), have or ask for wisdom (vs. 5), and not doubt (vs. 6).  Why does God want us to ask for His help without doubting?  Because if we doubt, have unbelief, that is not faith, and we waver and “become like the wave of the sea.” (vs. 6)  

“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.  By faith, he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.  For he was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God.  And by faith Abraham, even though he was past age and Sarah herself was barren, was enabled to become a father because he considered Him faithful who had made that promise” Hebrews 11:8-11.    

Faith is not a passive, pathetic attitude.  Faith is a robust and vigorous confidence in God.  Faith is to confidently step out on an unknown path with utter confidence in God as He leads one step at a time.  We see this faith as we continue to study the life of Abraham.

As we continue to look at the life and faith of Abram, we see a principle God uses with His children.  In Genesis and throughout the Bible the Lord God reveals more and more about Himself through His names or attributes.  He gives us a progressive revelation of Himself.  Whenever His people had a particular need, God was revealed to them in some new way and another of His names was made known to them.  His names reveal that all we ever need is found in the Lord.

For example, in the story of Gideon in Judges 6:22-24, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him as Jehovah Shalom. The Lord is Peace.  When the hour is dark, when the situation is desperate, when we are humbled and brought low, we finally begin looking and longing for God’s peace.  Trembling, we grope through the darkness longing for reassurance that all will be well, and it will be, for the Lord is our Peace, He is Jehovah Shalom.

Again, as we look at Genesis 17, we will see another name for God.  God appeared to Abram and the old man fell on his face.  It was the most appropriate place to meet God Almighty.  It was a most appropriate moment for God to reveal Himself as El Shaddai.  This is His name who reveals that He is more than able to do all He promises.  He’s the One who strengthens, satisfies, enriches and makes fruitful.  “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless” (vs. 1).  In other words, He was saying: “I am your all sufficient One.  Quit running.  Quit hiding, quit seeking other ways.  Trust in Me, rest in Me, let Me supply your needs.”

If anyone needed to know God as El Shaddai it was Abram.  He was ninety-nine years old and Sarai was eighty-nine, and they were still childless.  Yet God had promised them a child of their own.  “Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead, since he was about one hundred years old and that Sarah’s womb was also dead” Romans 4:19.  How could Abram give glory to God in such a seemingly hopeless situation?  It was because he met El Shaddai!

God Almighty is our Rock, our refuge, our very present help in times of trouble.  Everything you and I will ever need can be found in the all-sufficient One.  This is the truth the name El Shaddai proclaims.  The truth came home to Abram with his face in the dust before the Almighty.  It must have echoed in his mind again as he gazed into the face of baby Isaac and watched his little boy grow strong, sturdy and tall.  There were other tests yet to come for the old patriarch, tests that would push him to the utter edge of human endurance.  But from that time on Abram knew where to run for strength.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.  Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong” II Corinthians 12:9-10.

It was when Abram was incapable of producing a son that God revealed Himself as Almighty God.  God was saying “Learn that I am all powerful, and you be perfect in weakness.  Let Me, the Almighty God fulfill My own promises.”  Weakness and difficulty and seemingly human impossibilities present no problem to El Shaddai.  So whatever difficulties you are facing right now, run to Him, run to the throne room of His grace, and you will find His arms opened wide, ready to meet all your needs.  For He is El Shaddai, Almighty God.

Blessings and Peace,

Pastor Sharon