Day 22 — Faith in the God Who Gives Life

Day 22 · Faith and God’s Promises · Romans 4:13-25 (NET2)

Abraham's hope rested in the God who gives life to the dead, not in the apparent possibilities of his situation. Paul connects that faith with our trust in the God who raised Jesus. Faith is not optimism that any desired outcome will happen. It receives God's promise and rests in Christ, delivered over because of our sins and raised for our justification.

Request

Father, deepen my trust in the God who raised Jesus. By your Spirit, turn my attention from the strength of my faith to the faithfulness of its object. Amen.

Read

Romans 4:13-25

¹³ For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not fulfilled through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. ¹⁴ For if they become heirs by the law, faith is empty and the promise is nullified. ¹⁵ For the law brings wrath, because where there is no law there is no transgression either. ¹⁶ For this reason it is by faith so that it may be by grace, with the result that the promise may be certain to all the descendants—not only to those who are under the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all ¹⁷ (as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”). He is our father in the presence of God whom he believed—the God who makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do. ¹⁸ Against hope Abraham believed in hope with the result that he became the father of many nations according to the pronouncement, “so will your descendants be.” ¹⁹ Without being weak in faith, he considered his own body as dead (because he was about one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰ He did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. ²¹ He was fully convinced that what God promised he was also able to do. ²² So indeed it was credited to Abraham as righteousness.

²³ But the statement it was credited to him was not written only for Abraham’s sake, ²⁴ but also for our sake, to whom it will be credited, those who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵ He was given over because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of our justification.

Scripture: NET Bible, Second Edition (NET2).

Reflect

1. What made God's promise seem impossible, and what does Paul emphasize about the God Abraham trusted?
2. How does Jesus' death and resurrection give your faith a firmer foundation than your feelings or circumstances?

Restate

Explain how Paul connects Abraham's faith with believing in the God who raised Jesus.

Respond

Let the passage guide your prayer. Use these prompts in your own words:

• Praise: Praise God as the giver of life who keeps his word.
• Thanksgiving: Thank him for Jesus' death for our sins and resurrection for our justification.
• Confession: Confess treating faith as positive thinking or a way to control outcomes.
• Intercession: Pray for someone whose circumstances make hope difficult.
• Petition: Ask for steady trust grounded in God's saving action.

Carry it into today: Return to the final two verses when your confidence wavers, and thank God for what he has done in Christ.