“What did you call me???” Depending on the attitude those words are spoken with, they can mean a lot of different things. Have you ever heard them? Spoken them?
They bring back memories of growing up for me. (I have 2 sisters and 1 brother, and let’s just say we didn’t always obey the golden rule.) Names would fly, and then you’d hear, “What did you call me?” And then…well…let’s just move on, shall we?
Or they could be the case of mistaken identity. When I was at Bible School, there was a girl there that could have been my identical twin. It was a little eerie. I was at her apartment one time looking at the pictures on her refrigerator and had the thought, “I don’t remember that taking that picture with them.” And it wasn’t me. It was her.
But people would call me Christian and call her Toni all the time. “What did you call me? I’m sorry. You have the wrong person. I’m Toni.”
And I’ve really been thinking a lot about Abraham and Sarah lately. A LOT!
Abraham was first named “father” and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. (Romans 4:17 MSG)
God called him father long before he became a father. They were still childless for years after God first called him the father of many nations.
I’m sure initially they looked at God and said, “What did you call me? Father? Mother? Have you noticed we are old and childless here? Come on. Let’s get real.”
God was being real. He was speaking heavenly realities over them.
I’m sure their friends and family had some things to say all those years. I’m sure they had some names to call them. Crazy. Delusional. Childless. Barren.
“What did you call us? I’m sorry, but if you’re going to refer to us, it needs to be father and mother. I am the father of many nations and she is fruitful.”
When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, “You’re going to have a big family, Abraham!” (Romans 4:18 MSG)
I love that. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding…..
Abraham had a choice to make. And he decided to live based on what God said instead of what he saw. And that’s when heavenly reality and earthly reality met.
Abraham didn’t focus on his own impotence and say, “It’s hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child.” Nor did he survey Sarah’s decades of infertility and give up. He didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. (Romans 4:19 MSG)
What is calling you names that are opposite of what God said? What in your life looks hopeless that God has called a miracle already?
Sickness?
Lack?
Depression?
Addiction?
Let’s look at those situations and say, “What did you call me? I’m sorry, you have the wrong person! I’m healed. I’m provided for. I’m delivered. I’m free!”
God wants us to become what He has already called us. But we have a part to play.
Let’s take a cue from Abraham and let’s dare to trust God. Let’s dare to believe Him anyway. Let’s decide not to live based on what we see but rather on what God said. Let’s plunge into the promises and live like they’re true.
Are you ready to see heaven’s reality become earthly reality?
Nothing is impossible with God!