Good evening!

Greetings in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow–not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. (Romans 8:38)
God appeared multiple time to Abram, and encouraged him.  Each time, God re-enforced His promise to Abram.  In fact, God gave him a bigger and bigger blessing, and made it more and more plain to him by not only telling but also visualizing the promise by taking him to the night sky, and making him look up the crystal clear stars covering the clear night sky from one horizon to the other.   God asked him to count the shining stars.   Of course, he could not count.   Even he did not know where to start to count them.   Abram had no more word to describe God’s promise.  Like this, whenever Abram had a doubt, God appeared to him, and re-enforced His promise.   Yes, God tenaciously loved Abram.   Like a parent, who is truly joyful about his/her baby hearing the very first babbling word from his/her baby’s mouth, God was truly please when Abram showed a glimpse of his faith in Him.
And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith.  (Genesis 15:6)   If we just read this verse only, it is easy to think Abram had a truly wonderful faith.  That was the reason why God counted him as righteous.   No, it was not.   He was in doubt on God’s promise, because nothing was happening.  Thus, Abram devised his own plan to manufacture God’s promise by his own hand.   Upon hearing this, God blocked his plan, because it was sinful.  (Anything against God’s will is a sin.)    Of course, God could punish him, but God did not.  Instead, God gave even a bigger promise by showing off all the stars on the clear night sky (not like our murky and light-polluted sky, which barely allows for us to see few stars on a good day.)    Was there anyone on earth, who could refuse such blessing from God?   Of course, not.   The Almighty God appeared and told this unbelievably amazing blessing.   Like us, for Abram it was an easy choice – believing the promise.  Then truly amazingly, God counted Abram as righteous.   
This gives one insight about who the God truly is.  When God gives us an unimaginable blessing, we must accept it with the highest gratitude and humility in faith before the Almighty God.   Why?   First, this pleases God.   He loves to give His blessing to His children.  Second, God wants for us to truly believe His blessing although his blessing is unimaginable greater than anything that we can think of.    By the way, if you are a believer, you have already received such an unfathomable blessing, which is the Gospel – our salvation freely given to us by God.   If we accept this blessing, then God pleases with us, and declares “righteous” because we accept and believe His most precious gift.  This is our faith, which truly pleases God.  Without faith, we cannot please God. 
“And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”  (Hebrews 11:6)
All who accept Jesus as the true and only one savior are righteous before God.   Then we often expect after this, all things should be perfect and smoothly done for the rest of the lift, because believing in Jesus as savior is not just for our earthly life, but the eternity in our True Home, the Heaven.   Why are we, believers still struggling on earth with the earthly things and people around us?
God rejoices over us, not because we have our faith that can move the mountain, but because we have just start our journey in our faith with Him.   Like a parent, who cannot keep quite when he/she hears the first babbling word from his/her baby, or when his/her baby makes a first step, God is really rejoicing over our first step in our faith.   As a parent, even today, I can remember how joyful I was when I heard the first babbling word from my son’s mouth.   I recorded with my cassette recorder.  (Unfortunately, I accidently erased it later.)    Surely, I can also vividly recall in my heart my son making his first step by himself without holding anything.   I couldn’t be still.  I had to tell this to other family and friends.  Our Heavenly Father’s joy must be even much greater than what I had experienced, because God’s love is greater than mine.  
Then after making the first step, my son continued made me pleased.   He started to walk  like a real kid graduating from the barely balancing baby steps.   Soon he was able to run.   He was so fast that I had a hard time to catch him especially in house.   Then he started pre-school.   He played with his own friends, running and giggling.    Soon he was in Kindergarten, which was followed by elementary school, middle school,  high school, and college.   After making his first baby-step, I cannot even imagine how many steps that my son made so far.   What I can sure is that walking becomes his second nature, and I don’t have to worry about whether he might fall as I worried when he was a toddler.  
Yes, our first baby-step faith makes Our Heavenly Father truly pleased.   Without faith, we cannot make Him.  Period.   It is true that all faiths are not equal.   The world fastest man can run 100m in 9.58 seconds.  The person’s name is Usain Bolt from Jamaica.    This record was made in 2009.   His speed is translated to 37.5 Km per hour, or 23.3 miles per hour.  My son is quite athletic, but his 100 meter time is not even close to this record.   Although we all made our parents truly pleased by making a first baby step, but not all of us become the record holder.   Even he is not the 100 meter world record holder, I dearly love my son.  Why?   Because he is my son.   Is there any other reason why I love my son?  
This is the truth of our Heavenly Father’s love.    God loves us not because of the greatest faith in Him, but because of one single fact that we are His children.   Sure, some of us can become a record holder in faith.    (Please read Hebrews Chapter 11.   This is commonly known as the faith chapter.   This chapter lists the record holders of faith in God.)     However, most of us will not such a record holder in faith.   For God’s eye, it does not matter whether we hold a record or not.   He wants for us to keep our own faith in Him no matter what happens in our life.    Let say, after making a baby step, if my son stayed forever as a toddler, who barely walks, it would be my greatest concern on my son, although I loved my son.   I would do whatever I can do to make my son properly grow into a normal and healthy adult.  
The interaction between Abram and God mirrored this relationship.   God tenaciously chased down Abram, and rekindled his faith by intervening Abram with blessing, which made Abram back to Him again and again.   This is the love of God, which is so powerful that can turn any doubters to His faithful children.   Just open our eyes and ears in our heart, and hear His voice.   As Bible tells, God, who starts a good work in us, will surely complete our faith.  
And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.  (Philippians 1:6)

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