Why is it hard for us to trust God?

That’s the question we’ll be dealing with this Sunday. In the last half of Romans 4, we see how Abraham trusted God even though it wasn’t easy. In fact, when God made his promises to Abraham, do you know what Abraham did? He laughed (c.f. Genesis 17:17). If you look at the promises in the gospel, and then you look at yourself, and then you laugh, you won't be the first. God does not come to people who need a little patching-up here and there. God comes to people who need a miracle. Look at Abraham. When he was an old man and his wife was beyond childbearing years, God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a whole new nation, a nation through whom God would redeem this broken world. God promised that he would rebirth the human race not through a vigorous, rising young leader but through a retiree on his way out. But Abraham couldn't see how it would all work out. All he could see was a promise and the barrier he himself was to that promise. What made faith hard for Abraham was Abraham. And the same is true for us. It’s hard for us to trust God. How then did Abraham break the faith barrier?

Abraham did not believe God in spite of his own inadequacies; he believed God because of his own inadequacies. God was the one who put Abraham in an impossible position, so that Abraham could experience what only God can do. And God shows us what impossible people we are for the same reason. The real barrier to faith is not the odds, because God trumps all odds. The real barrier to faith is whether we want God in our lives. Really believing something costs us. Really believing something will take over our lives and change us. Do you know what helped Abraham? He humbled himself before God and in effect said, "My life is not about me anymore. It's about you now." Faith is not making ourselves think that things are better than they really are; faith is looking at our real problems and then looking beyond to the promises of God and saying to him, "Display your glory in me.”

Abraham faced a choice. He could put his hope in his own potential, or he could put his hope in God's promises. He thought about it, and he chose God. Faith in God is always an act of defiance against an alternative hope. Abraham didn't mix the two hopes. God is not our fallback position when we run out of own brilliant ideas; God is the source of everything hopeful. Faith in God is not a weakness we should be embarrassed by; it is the only real strength for facing real life, because it changes everything into an opportunity for God to put himself on display through us in our weakness. If you struggle to trust God, don't try to make yourself believe. Just keep looking at the hard realities, keep looking at the promises in the gospel, and ask yourself if God has thought of everything. That is faith.