Hebrews 11:12, “Therefore from one man and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”

I asked the Bible Class last Sunday if any of them had ever tried to count the stars.  No one volunteered that they had attempted it.  I had when I was growing up on the farm; likely after having the story of Abraham in Sunday school.  I had assumed that everyone would have made the attempt, but I guess not many kids are as dreamy as I was.  However, whatever dreams I or anyone else has ever had are next to nothing when compared to the over the top dreams of God.

“By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.” Of course, the author of Hebrews chose to overlook Sarah’s laughter from behind the tent flap when God made his “ridiculous” promise.  The writer of Hebrews by-passed the ancient couples attempt to bring God’s dream into reality through their nephew Eliezer and the disaster of Abraham begetting a son, Ishmael, through Sarah’s maid, Hagar.

And yet, Genesis 15:6 tells us, “And (Abraham) believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”  Abraham and Sarah may have made a mess of things trying to take God’s promise into their own hands.  Yet, because Abraham believed, God counted his faith as everything.

That’s good news  when we mess up living by the promises of God in Jesus Christ.  God, who through the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of faith, counts that as putting us right with himself.

That’s worth a daily “praise the Lord.”