Genesis 15
When the Wait Is Long
"Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness." (Genesis 15:6)
God had promised Abraham a son. Abraham was old. Sarai was barren. And Abraham had been waiting long enough that he’d already started making contingency plans: maybe my servant Eliezer will be my heir.
God took him outside and showed him the stars. Count them if you can. That’s how many descendants you’ll have.
And Abraham believed. Despite the age, despite the barrenness, despite the years of waiting, despite the contingency plan he’d already started building. He believed God.
That’s the moment Paul points to in Romans, the moment that defines what faith is. Not certainty. Not evidence. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
The waiting wasn’t a failure. The years between the promise and the fulfillment weren’t wasted. God was doing something in that space that couldn’t happen any other way. And the faith that held through the long wait was different from faith that gets tested for a week.
