Abraham Receives the Promise

20Yet he did not waver through disbelief in the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21being fully persuaded that God was able to do what He had promised. 22That is why "it was credited to him as righteousness."  Romans 4:20-22

The "he" in verse 20 is Abraham. The promised blessings are secured by faith.

If KatieLyn had been living as a spiritual Daughter of Abraham instead of as a flesh-believing daughter of her parents, she'd be happily looking forward to her first anniversary this month.

These verses explain why KatieLyn turned from a spiritual Daughter of Abraham to a carnal-thinking Runaway Bride.  I will substitute some names and flip some antonyms so that you can see how this works.

Yet KatieLyn wavered in her disbelief in the promise of God, and was weakened in her faith and gave a judgmental assessment to God, not being fully persuaded that God was able to do what He had promised. That is why it was credited to her as perfidy.

I hope that reading a personalized flip side of what the scriptures teach will illuminate just how far away from God KatieLyn actually strayed. I am pretty sure that she did not know herself, for that is the nature of the enemy's deception.

Abraham did not waver through disbelief. KatieLyn wavered. Her mom was stirring a tempest of doubt and sent it swirling around her on a regular basis. Her dad apparently sat by like that trio of monkeys, not wanting to see, hear, or speak out about the evil.

Be assured, the codependency between KatieLyn and her mom is evil. It is evil because it caused KatieLyn to question God, and doubting God destroys faith. Faith is necessary to please God. A codependency that makes it impossible to please God is evil. KatieLyn is a perpetual child who needs her mother's approval before she can be happy. As long as she plays her mother's mini-me, the stress is minimal. And because KatieLyn hates stressful situations, she "goes along to get along" like a nice, compliant child. The more that she becomes like her mother, the calmer her home-life is. But the cost of not fighting with her mother was a broken engagement and a disastrous trail of wreckage that her Pollyanna side has chosen to ignore.

Theirs is not the happy Christian family that they wish to project to the public on Sunday mornings. Theirs is a deeply dysfunctional relationship that God was leading KatieLyn out of until she wavered in unbelief and doubted the promise of God. To doubt God is to dishonor Him. To continue to question God after you have already heard Him weakens your faith.

Abraham's faith was strengthened because he honored God's promise. God's Word® translation captures this idea better than the King James does:
He didn't doubt God's promise out of a lack of faith. Instead, giving honor to God [for the promise], he became strong because of faith ~ verse 20 
God's Word® uses a translation principle that they termed "closest natural equivalent," which attempts to be as close to the original as possible and still sound like natural speech.  You can see that Abraham was not "trying really, really hard" to believe God. He simply made a choice to give respect/honor/glory to God for the promise. It was the giving of honor, Abraham's respectful response, that strengthened his faith. Doubting God's promise is not respectful at all.

Verse 21 says that Abraham was "fully persuaded," or as God's Word® puts it, "was absolutely confident that God would do what he promised." Abraham did not have to be convinced: he knew who God was/is/will be; he knew God well enough to have complete confidence in what God said.

The Lesson
Abraham received the promise because he trusted God. KatieLyn did not receive her promise because she did not trust God.