Empowerd By Faith

In these troubled days which look even worse when we look not only at our own country, but at the entire globe, the words of St. Paul to the Romans stand as a beacon of hope.  The Roman Empire included most of the Mediterranean Basin and beyond to the north, had a strong army, a system of law and order, widespread commerce, great wealth, and could have been considered as "having it all."  But all was not totally worthy of admiration:  human dignity was ignored, especially in a culture where slavery and disrespect for human life was taken for granted; the state religion made it very difficult for fledgling Christianity to grow, as persecution followed persecution.  St. Paul and the other Apostles knew that had the antidote to all of this, but they certainly were in a minority.  To encourage the Christians in Rome, and beyond, he reminded them of the odds that Abraham, our father in faith, faced as well as what he could have taken as the impossible promise of his becoming the father of a great nation, when as an old man, he had no children.  To his credit and as an example to us, "No distrust made him waver waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith, as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised." (Rm 4:20-21).   And even more so, with not only the promise of Jesus, but with the reality of his resurrection from the dead,  we are assured that the victory is already won. (cf 1Cor 15: 56).  Yes, things and people can be frightening, but like Abraham, we need to be fully convinced that God is not only able to keep his promises, but he has kept them.  It's just the working out of them, which must be done in faith by us.
Bro. Rene