I love looking at scripture from a contractual perspective; it’s not a way I often think, but I believe it’s really helpful to find out exactly what my role is and what God’s is. As you trust in him - this prayer of Paul’s is actually conditional: May God do ____ as you do _____. What prayers am I praying for others that should be conditional? In Mozambique, everyone is always praying and talking about blessing, but blessing isn’t always good for the soul.
Again here, trust is a choice: a choice (our role) that leads to a change in our emotions (God’s job). That sounds pretty good… After all, I can’t fill myself with joy or peace, but I can choose to trust!
So that you... There is a reason Paul is praying this. He is trying to take his people from here to there; showing them the life that they should be living. A life overflowing with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We see this consistently in our lives. It’s not a hope that is an emotion or a fleeting experience. Through the years of living with the Lord and seeing his heart and his capacity, we constantly live with hope in our circumstances and in the circumstances of those around us; a hope that most people are sorely lacking. It consistently surprises me how much more hope I have for someone else’s life than they have for their own…
Abram believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness. -Genesis 15:6
Righteousness - right standing with God. In an era before that was even technically possible, and before anyone had written books of testimonies from following the Lord, Abram believed. No wonder he was called the father of the faithful!
Interesting aside… Most of the time we talk about righteousness, it’s from the perspective of a lack of sin in our lives. But if you look at the biblical references, less than half are about that; many more are about your actions to others, your mercy, or compassion. Joseph was a righteous man, so he didn’t want to stone Mary as was his right. True fasting is letting justice flow and paying your workers fairly. Righteousness is the presence of attitudes and actions, not just the absence of bad ones.
Righteousness isn’t just related to our relationship to ourselves (sin), or to others (good deeds), but also to our relationship with God. Believing him is credited as righteousness.
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