How To Have All You Need – by Desmond Ford

• Christian Evidences
• Christian Living
• Christianity
• Dr Desmond Ford
• Faith
• Gospel
• Hope
• Jesus
• Righteousness
• Salvation

Dec 29, 2015 2103

Abraham says to God,

Lord what are you going to give me? I still continue childless. Lord, you have made all these promises to me for over 20 years and I have believed them but there is no evidence that I am going to have a good family, a big family and inherit the land of Canaan.

So God comes to Abraham with reassuring words, but Abraham almost cuts him short and says,

But Lord, look at my situation!

Notice what follows. God tells him that the steward he has is not the promised heir (verse 4).

God has him look at the heavens and says,

Look at the stars; Can you count them? That is how many descendants you are going to have.

And then the Bible has the great line,

and he believed the Lord and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

That is the first time in the Bible you find the word “believe.” That is also the first time you have the word righteousness. So here is the Bible clearly telling me how to get righteousness: Nothing in my hand I bring.

Faith is not a doing thing; it is a receiving thing.

The only way I can ever hope for righteousness is to believe that God means what he says: that he is exceedingly good, that he forgives sins, that righteousness is a gift, and that what I need is just to take hold of Him and then I have everything. By receiving God we receive all that we need.

– Des Ford. Rom 8:27–32. Adapted from “The Night of Wrestling.”