“Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right”

READ: Rom 1-4

Topic: Decide to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do

SCRIPTURE:
God is kind, but he's not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change.
Merely hearing God's law is a waste of your time if you don't do what he commands. Doing, not hearing, is what makes the difference with God.
He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.
God does not respond to what we do; we respond to what God does. We've finally figured it out. Our lives get in step with God and all others by letting him set the pace, not by proudly or anxiously trying to run the parade.
"Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own."
If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don't call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.
We all agree, don't we, that it was by embracing what God did for him that Abraham was declared fit before God?
17-18We call Abraham "father" not because he got God's attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!"
19-25Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right." But it's not just Abraham; it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God. he loves?

OBSERVATION: And this is the key: God does not respond to what we do; we respond to what God does. We've finally figured it out. Our lives get in step with God and all others by letting him set the pace, not by proudly or anxiously trying to run the parade. It’s God’s parade ALL ALONG! And I thank You for His dreams!!! God is not a god that’s boring! We think He is but instead we cannot begin to image His plans He has for us! We only are to believe and trust in Him! I don’t make up the dreams, He places inside me!

APPLICATION:
Decide to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do!

PRAYER:
“Thank you Lord! It’s a privilege that You would let me in on this life You have for me! I thank You Lord that You set me right! I thank You Lord that You made all things possible! I thank You Lord that I can rest in You today! I pray Lord and ask You to let it rain on me! Let Your will be done and let Your Kingdom come!!!! In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen!”