Back To Life

ByJim Stephens

Reading: Romans 4; Psalm 64

That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.  (Romans 4:17 NLT)

Is our relationship with God—our “rightness” in God’s eyes—because we do good works, obey moral law, practice religious rituals, or simply because we believe and trust God? Abraham is our pattern and example of “rightness” by believing God’s promises, and by living a life based on that faith.

Abraham believed that God could give him a son when he was too old to father a child by a wife who had never been able to have children. Then, when called to offer that son as a sacrifice to God, he obeyed, believing God could raise him back to life. Paul tells the story of Abraham’s faith, and the results of that faith, and in the process describes God as: “The God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.”

This statement is true historically because God gave Abraham a miracle son just as he promised. The statement is true theologically because God resurrected Jesus after his crucifixion, and because God created the heavens and the earth by the power of his word and will. The statement is true for you and me devotionally today because God resurrects dead hopes and dreams in our lives, and because he speaks words of promise to us, creating possibilities that did not exist before he spoke them.

If your God-given hopes and dreams seem impossible to realize, but you still believe God gave them to you, believe that God is the God who creates new things out of nothing! If your God-given hopes and dreams have died in your heart and withered in your hands, believe that God is the God who brings the dead back to life!

Friends, I invite you to pray this “back to life” prayer with me today:

Prayer:

Father, I believe you are the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing. Please breathe new spirit-life into me today. Please speak your creative word into my present and my future and create faith to explore possibilities and receive your promises. I choose to trust you and to believe your Word. Amen.