— This repost from yonks ago is speaking to me– 
When was the last time you went star-gazing? Ever tried counting those stars dotting our sky before? (*Smile*: Good Luck!)
Some of my best moments in an otherwise unspectacular day would be on my evening walks with my kids.
Invariably I would turn my gaze upward, look on the thousands upon thousands of tiny specs in the night sky, and find my worries turning into relief, my fears into rest. The vastness of the sky frees me from the enclosure that entraps me. And through the life of Abraham, we learn to live in another realm — that of God’s possibilities, and to look at our everyday life through a different set of eyes.
This is the story…
The Lord’s Covenant With Abram
1 After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?”
3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.”
5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
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Photo by Free Nature Stock on I have found it personally helpful to break this story into 5 Ps:
1st P- The Physical Limitation
The tent where Abraham (originally Abram) was taken out from represents the natural habitation where he lived and had his being. It was his place of familiarity and comfort. Abram had grown so comfortable living inside his four walls that God had to take him out of his four-mile radius into a different dimension. Never before had Abram dreamt of fathering a son, let alone many nations, but the day that God took him out of his usual dwelling place, He broke his glass ceiling and showed him what was supernaturally available for him.
2nd P – The Parameter
It was at this point that God promised Abram: “Look now toward the heavens, and tell the stars, if you are able to number them; and he said unto him, so shall thy seed be.”
You see, Abraham had every odd against him. He was past child-bearing age. His body was as good as dead. Sarah’s womb was dead. There was no human possibility for them to conceive a child.
But God enlarged Abram’s realm of thinking into what was a God-possibility by getting him to gaze at the stars.
I believe God wants us to turn our gaze upward too. Look at what God is able to do.
He wants us to take us higher, farther and deeper than we could ever go.
He wants us to step out of our natural living into a world where God sets the rule.
3rd P – The Promise
“Your descendants will be as many as the stars in the sky and the sand in the seashore…”
Through this promise, God was reminding Abram that He was limitless, that He was all able.
4th P – The Predicament
However, the promise did not happen straight away. It was another 25 years before Isaac, the promised son was born
In the meantime, Abram and Sarah tried their best to help God fulfil His own promise by involving Hagar, Sarah’s maidservant. But have you ever wondered why God had to make him wait all those 25 years before the promise was fulfilled? We too may find ourselves asking: where is the healing, God? When is my financial breakthrough?…
5th – The Pivot
Between the promise and the predicament, life hangs on the pivot of faith. And this is where hope hangs.
For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.
Romans 4:13
God had to strip Abram out of his natural ability to produce so that the whole world would receive the promise of salvation that comes from faith alone. God had to wait until Abram’s body was as a good as dead so that the promised son was truly birthed in faith, and that there wasn’t anything of Abraham to earn the promise, and that the basis of our salvation is always on the full and complete grace of God alone!
Hope can truly gives wings to faith. Oswald Chamber who wrote on the discipline of seeing reminded us that we ought to see God in all circumstances, and keep our mind stayed on Him even when the odds are against us, and this is what will carry us to hope against hope.
Abraham kept looking towards the sky. He kept counting the stars. The longer he lingered, the stronger he grew in faith. He could no longer stay earth-bound by his personal barrenness or limitation, for the longer he pivots his gaze on heaven, the more consumed he was with what God was able to do.
I believe as Abraham kept gazing towards the sky, something happened within him. It wasn’t a pointless exercise. In it was the beginning of His expansion, his mind a nice blank canvas for God to alone define what was now possible.
“Our creative mind is the greatest gift God has given us and it ought to be devoted entirely to him. This is our greatest asset of faith when trial comes because then our faith and the Spirit of God will work together.”
Oswald Chambers
Let’s set our eyes upon God for what we behold, we become.
“Lift up your eyes on high and see, who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power and not one is missing.”
Isaiah 40:26
Let’s go star gazing today, and allow God to revive the dreamer within us. May we stop living small lives. May we stake our lives upon God’s great and precious promises.
