Scripture Reading For Today — Rom 4:17-21; Gen 17:1-6; Gen 1:1-3

But Then, God Said…

I’d like to start off today’s meditation by asking you a simple question:

What’s your story again…?

The three scriptures that we are meditating on today, give us a good foundation to properly answer that question.

In the first one Rom 4:17-21 which we also meditated on yesterday, the passage recounts the testimony of Abraham who had to take a stance of faith, to believe that God was both able and faithful to keep the promise that He had made to him.

But in addition to telling us what Abraham did, it also recounts what God does —

“He gives life to the dead and calls the things that be not, as though they were!”

Blessed, but…

Childless Abraham, then “Abram’s” life, together with his wife Sarah, told the story that said: “blessed, but…”

Maybe like them, you also have a “but” in the story that your life has told about you up till this moment in time.

Maybe when people talk about you there is a “but” that is a prominent narrative of your history. Maybe the enemy mocks you constantly with that irrefutable “but” that even you cannot ignore when you think about your life and your circumstances.

God is ready to add a “then” to the “but” in your life and say something different about your life; He is ready to change the narrative of the story of your life!

Abraham called himself childless and heirless (Gen 15:2) That was the story he had told himself and believed to be the reality of his life; that was the story that people told about him.

Time had passed him by — that was another story that was evident; another lie that he had believed about his situation. (Gen 17:15-17)

But then, God had looked at childless Abram and called him Abraham, the father of many nations; He then looked at barren Sarai and called her Sarah, a mother of nations —

“Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.

And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.” Gen 17:15-16

God called them both what they were meant to be; He declared them to be already who they were destined to be—

Calling the things that be not, as they were meant to be, God changed the narrative of their story!

I Know What I See, But I Know What He Said!

In Gen 1:1-3; we see this inerrant nature of God also manifested right from the time of creation. The bible tells us the history of creation; the state that the earth was in at the beginning of creation — a dark, formless void.

But God looked beyond that undesirable story and declared instead, what He wanted to see into manifestation — “Then God Said!”

We would see this exact phrase repeated seven more times, as God used the words from His mouth to shape the nature of creation.

So, your life is a mess right now; so your children, finances, career, ministry, marriage, business are not what or where you want them to be — and then what?

Then God said!

Friend, it is time for you to begin to do as God did, to begin to say what God said; it is time for you to open your mouth and call those things that be not in your life, as they ought to be!

Prayer Focus

Make a list of the things, situations, areas of your life where you want to see a change in your story.

Where the word of a king is, there is power! (Ecclesiastes 8:4)

Begin to speak the change that you want to see, and call those things not what they are or have been, but what God intends for them to be; what you are believing God for them to be!

I pray that God will bring the changes and breakthroughs that you desire in your life, according to His good counsel and purpose concerning you, in the precious Name of Jesus. Amen.

Pastor Wale Ola