The most
remarkable point in his faith is this, he grasped as no one else had done
that God is God because He can quicken the dead. [Footnote: Rom. iv. 17.]
He can give life to the dead because He Himself is the Source of life. He
calls "those things which are not as though they were" because He is the
Creator of all things. This applies not only to the body but to the soul.
Your confidence in God began when your soul, which was "dead in sin," was
quickened into a new life. When we ourselves have experienced this
quickening it gives us such faith in praying for those we love, knowing
that God alone can quicken dead souls.
Abraham was "strong in faith"; even when God promised him a son, although
it seemed impossible, "he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief," being "fully persuaded" that God was able to do it. To be
"strong in faith" is to feel our utter helplessness and to rely on God's
power only; to be "strong in faith" is to grasp God's promise and not to
let anything make us doubt it.
We have an illustration of this strong faith in the case of the first
missionary who went out to China a hundred years ago. The captain of the
ship in which he sailed was an atheist, and one day he said to him with a
sneer, "You don't suppose, do you, that you are going to convert those
Chinese?" "No," said the missionary, "but I believe _God_ is going to do
it." Did God fail him? No. His faith was rewarded, and at the present time
there are a quarter of a million Chinese believers who meet in fellowship
at the Lord's Table.
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