When Abram received his marching orders to leave the idolatrous region of Mesopotamia for a land he did not know, for his obedience the LORD promised him, in part, “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing” (Gen. 12:2, KJV). As he and his household made their way through the plain of Moreh, again the LORD assured Abram, “Unto thy seed will I give this land” (vv. 6-7). The promise of heirs made a lot of sense for Abram’s name meant “high father.” The fly in the ointment was that Sarai, his wife, was barren (Gen. 11:30); she could bear him no children.
We are not told that Abram thought about the reality of his situation and how that fitted into the plan of God. However, when God reassured him “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (15:1), he did not hesitate to bring it up: “And Abram said, ‘Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?’ And Abram said, ‘Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir'” (vv. 2-3). The LORD countered, “This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir” (v. 4). He then took Abram out of his tent and said to him, “‘Look now toward heaven, and tell [try to count] the stars, if thou be able to number them’: and He said unto him, ‘So shall thy seed be'” (v.5). I would imagine that for a moment there was silence. As Abram gazed up into the skies looking at the countless stars, the promise of God echoing in his ears, something happened to him for the narrative tells us, “And he believed in the LORD” (v. 6a). In other words, he was able to see what God was seeing.
We do not know for sure if he understood everything at that point. Outwardly, his situation had not changed. Sarai, his only wife, was still barren, but in spite of that he believed in the promise of the LORD. He did not know how his LORD was going to pull off what He had promised, but they had traveled this far together and he was learning that his task was to trust and leave the outcome to Jehovah, the LORD.
We are in the same position today. As we journey with the LORD we find ourselves facing seemingly impossible situations. There are times when in our moments of weakness, like Abram, our faith wavers and we devise our own solutions (Gen. 16:1-4). From our perspective, things just doesn’t add up. However, as the writer to the Hebrews reminds us, “let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for He is faithful that promised)” (Hebrews 10:26). If God promised it, He will surely bring it to pass. Let us change our perspective from being circumstances-centered to being God-centered. Let us remind ourselves of His promises and start to see as He sees. It is the only perspective that matters.
