Day 4: I have heard you
And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation (Genesis 17:20).
Our Father and our God, You are the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him and keep His commandments (Nehemiah 1:5). You are trustworthy in all Your promises and faithful in all You do (Psalm 145:13)—it is impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18).
You promised Abraham on oath that He would become the father of many nations (Genesis 17:4). And even when he ran ahead of Your promise, Your plan and Your purpose remained unchanged. Although Abraham faced serious consequences for His human attempt to manipulate Your divine plan, You still showed him grace and compassion.
Persisting to doubt the promise of an heir by his wife Sarah, Abraham... laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” (Genesis 17:17). Then he lifted up a plaintive prayer for his son, Ishmael, “If only Ishmael might live under Your blessing!” (Genesis 17:18). And in Your remarkable kindness, You answered, "As for Ishmael, I have heard You" (Genesis 17:20).
O Father, Your mercy is so great! In all of Abraham's struggles with doubt and unbelief, in all his lapses of faith and his contingency planning, You saw the seeds of faith deep within him, and Scripture pronounces him a man of faith in several places—including Paul's letters to the Roman and Galatian Christians:
What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3, 18; Galatians 3:6).
What encouragement this is for us, Lord, as we struggle with our own bouts of doubt and unbelief, and as we face the heartbreak, the turmoil, and the upheaval from our failed human schemes, our unsound plans and our misguided actions!
Thank You for Your grace-filled acceptance of our mustard seeds of faith (Matthew 17:20) as we wrestle with our circumstances and raise our plaintive prayers before Your throne. Thank You for hearing our if only" on behalf of Your church. Thank You for hearing our if only" on behalf of our children and our families—on behalf of our communities and our world.
Thank You, Lord, that Your plans and Your purpose prevail—that in all the wreckage and ruin of faithlessness and human scheming, You offer redemption, and restoration and hope. Thank You that in our wrestling, our struggling, our doubting, You meet us, and You assure us, "I have heard you." And You let us live under Your blessing.
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