Friday, September 15, 2023

Romans 4:18-21 -- On Hope and Trust

"Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb:
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform."
Romans 4:18-21


These verses are about Abraham and how he believed God even though God's promises to him often made no sense in a worldly way. And I think that is something that interferes between us and God as well. We just can't make that mental leap to actually believing what God says. Sort of like Naaman, who couldn't quite believe that just washing in the Jordan seven times would cure his leprosy. It just didn't make sense. Why would washing cure him, and why that river, and why didn't the prophet come out and talk to me personally, or cure me himself? ... Our pride and our confusion are impediments to our faith sometimes.

Today, instead of overthinking it, let's just try it. Do the experiment that it talks about in Alma 32:27, or ask, as Moroni 10 suggests... or just pray in the morning and see if your day goes better than if you don't. The proof of the gospel is in the practice of it, and in believing God enough to at least try it with an open mind. Going into it trying to disprove it won't work either, just like praying when our minds are only open to one outcome. We have to trust God, even if it is just a tiny bit, and give him a chance to work with us... and as we do, we can learn to trust him more, step by step.

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