He Staggered Not............

Romans 4:20

“He staggered not at the promise of God

through unbelief;

but was strong in faith,

giving glory to God.

I recently read this verse in my Bible reading,

and since then, I can't get it out of

my mind and memory.

I had never noticed this verse before

and this is the only time in the Bible that the word

“staggered” is mentioned.

Here, it is talking about the promise of God

to give Abraham and Sarah a son in their old age,

and to make of him the 'father of many nations'.

It comes from the Greek word 'diakrino',

which in this context, has the meaning to hesitate,

to doubt, to waver. We often use this word as

'to work or move unsteadily'

or to 'arrange events so they don't happen at the same time'. Another way we use it is

'astonish or deep shock'.

Now, I know that when Abraham was told

that his wife would have a son,

he would have been 'staggered'!

But that is not the meaning here.

The word here has the meaning of not moved,

not doubting, not hesitating.

Abraham was not discouraged and

was fully assured that what God said He would do,

He would do!

Take a look at verse 21

“And being fully persuaded that,

what he had promised,

he was able also to perform”.

That sounds to me like Abraham had no doubts

that God could and would perform His promise.

It didn't matter that it was impossible

and to the human mind and comprehension,

absolutely crazy and unfathomable.

God is a worker of miracles and if we only

had 'faith as a grain of mustard seed',

we could move mountains!

So, what does all this have to do with us,

and why does the Bible

have so many verses on faith?

To quote something Dad said recently,

“Doubt minimises the scope

of the promises of God,

but faith maximises them;

faith sees the promises to be larger than the crisis,

brighter far than the dark clouds of circumstance.”

Well put! God put this verse in the Bible for us.

He put it in there so we could see

the fruit of not 'staggering' at the promises of God.

And notice the end of the verse,

“giving glory to God”.

It's not enough just to have faith

and reap the benefits,

but we are to give all glory to God!

So many times, we as Christians,

stagger at the promises of God through unbelief.

We pray prayers that we don't really believe God will answer, they're more like wishing for a pony.

We don't have faith that God can do

what we are asking. God sees our hearts

and He knows what is behind the words we pray,

and only He knows the faith behind the prayer.

In James 1:6 it says,

“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.

For he that wavereth is like a wave

of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”

Not staggering! Not doubting!

Abraham laid hold to the promise of God,

he grabbed onto it with both hands.

He “staggered not”.

I think, to me, this word 'stagger' will

always remind me of the time when

Abraham held fast to a promise of God,

and it will encourage me to

not doubt, not hesitate, not waver.

“And Jesus answering saith unto them,

Have faith in God.”