If God promised it you can and should believe it! Romans 3-4

When it comes to reading something in Romans you have to be able to connect with the entire context. These two chapters hang on rather complex links with the two chapters that come before and the four or five that come after. Grabbing a "devotional" out of the middle of them is like taking a snap-shot of Niagara Falls without the spray of water ... it leaves you one demensional. However, one of my favorite verses (in my youth it was my "life verse") is found in this section. When using Abraham for an example to fortify his argument that salvation in any age was by faith and faith alone, Paul states the following about Abraham's belief: Romans 4:20-21 "... yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform." Abraham is the father of all believers in that he "believed" God and that was counted (accredited) to him for righteousness ... that began what we all practice today: Faith begats righteousness - so, Abraham is our father. In the two verses above we see how that actually worked. Abraham heard God's Word - His Promises - and believed them. That was it. Abraham did a logical conclusion, however. He heard God's promises and then realized that if God said it He could also DO it and therefore he could put his trust in Him. When we live in fear we are saying we don't believe in the character of God ... we think He CAN'T do what He said and therefore we fear. We need to cast off our fear and put our trust in the promises of God that are based upon the character of God. When God says He can and will do something we have no reason not to believe Him.