Romans 4:18, 20-21
"Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become ‘the father of many nations’, according to what was said, ‘So numerous shall your descendants be.’ … No distrust made him 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. Therefore, his faith ‘was reckoned to him as righteousness.’"

Nazarene congregations around the globe often serve in difficult circumstances and remote places though as a “small but mighty” group of believers. The community around the church may be struggling with addiction, poverty, violence, and a lack of support for its young people. The church’s witness, however, is not to stop at the barriers but to listen and seek God’s vision for the community. The congregations begin by taking small steps to live into God’s hope through service and love throughout the community.

Our task as Christians is to discover what it means to see the world as God does—through faith in Jesus. Embracing God’s vision means that at every turn we trust that God is at work and surrender to this plan that may be beyond our understanding. Thus, we discover a new opportunity for God’s transformation of our lives and communities. In following this path, we are invited to be beacons of God’s hope—pointing back to God, our Savior and Savior of the world.

By trusting God before himself, Abraham sought after “hope beyond our hope,” as Paul describes in Romans 4. Hope is rooted not in human experience, possibility, or strength but in God’s abundant vision for salvation and restoration of the world.

Seeking God’s hope opens us to so much more than we can dream because possibility and imagination are expanded through faith. Abraham himself was to become the father who would bless all nations, but he and Sarah were unable to have children. Hope beyond hope was trusting that God could make the impossible, possible.

Our vision expands further as we join with God’s people in our faith journey. By God’s grace, we are made to see differently by faithfully following the way of Jesus. Indeed, in and through the countless small actions of our day-to-day lives—through service, prayer, and listening—God begins to reshape us.

God’s transformation is not often found in the thundering voice or forces shaking the earth but in the small whisper (1 Kings 19:11- 13). When we train our eyes to see God’s ways and ears to hear God’s voice, both personally and together as a church, we will have chosen the path of holiness—seeking after Christlikeness by his grace. Following Jesus will unravel our neatly constructed narratives and trusted paradigms. It is risky and often painful to enter into God’s change, which we identify as the process of being reborn and renewed in our lifelong journey of seeking God.

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Taken from the most recent issue of NCM Magazine. Read more here.