{"id":1466,"date":"2010-01-19T21:47:32","date_gmt":"2010-01-20T03:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1466"},"modified":"2010-01-19T21:47:32","modified_gmt":"2010-01-20T03:47:32","slug":"romans-420-wait-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-420-wait-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 4:20 – Wait Training"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romans 4:20<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

While waiting for God to fulfill His promise, Abraham\u2019s faith got stronger, and he gave glory to God.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Greek word translated \u201cwaver<\/span>\u201d is diakrin\u014d<\/span><\/em>. This word is made up of dia<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cthrough,\u201d though it is occasionally used to indicate \u201cseparation\u201d and krin\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto distinguish, to judge, or to decide.\u201d So, diakrin\u014d<\/span><\/em> in the passive voice, as it is used in this verse, implies being separated from oneself or to be in strife with oneself. Hence it is often translated as \u201cto doubt, to hesitate, or to waver.\u201d This is the sense in which this word is used in today\u2019s verse.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnbelief<\/span>\u201d is translated from apistia<\/span><\/em>, which is made up of the privative a<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cnot\u201d or \u201cwithout\u201d and a form of pistis<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201ca conviction or belief in a truth.\u201d Hence, apistia<\/span><\/em> refers to \u201cthe lack of faith or lack of belief.\u201d<\/p>\n

The word \u201cstrengthened<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek word endunamo\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which is made up of en<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cin\u201d and dunamo\u014d<\/span><\/em> (from which we get our English word dynamite), meaning \u201cto strengthen or to empower.\u201d Therefore, endunamo\u014d<\/span><\/em> means \u201cto make strong or vigorous\u201d or \u201cto strengthen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGlory<\/span>\u201d is translated from the Greek word doxan<\/span><\/em>, which primarily means \u201cthought or opinion, especially favorable human opinion,\u201d and thus in a secondary sense it means reputation, praise, honor.<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This verse simply summarizes what has been said about Abraham in the previous few verses. In spite of his having to wait 20 years, Abraham did not stagger in his faith. The Greek actually says that \u201che did not waver in unbelief regarding God\u2019s promise.<\/span>\u201d His faith was so sure and so strong that his faith did not weaken over time, and he apparently never doubted God once he accepted and believed the promise God made to him regarding his descendants.<\/p>\n

I find the next phrase quite interesting. Paul says, \u201cbut <\/span>(he) was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God.<\/span>\u201d If we look at Abraham\u2019s life we see that he had many direct interactions with God. In each case he learned a little bit more about God, and each situation served to reaffirm his belief in God and in His promise to Abraham. So, instead of Abraham\u2019s faith getting weaker over the course of time as he waited for God to fulfill His promise, his faith was unwavering and it actually was strengthened. As a result of his strengthening faith, Abraham gave glory to God. Do you see what that says? Abraham\u2019s strong, unwavering faith actually enabled him to give glory to God while he waited. In a similar way, when we believe God\u2019s promise and act on faith, we give honor to God. Also, as we learn to depend on God\u2019s promises, which we must accept by faith alone, we become a testimony to his greatness.<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Are you going through a time of testing? Does God seem to be ignoring your prayers? If you remain firm in your faith and wait patiently for God, your faith will be strengthened and in time you will be able to praise God and give Him glory. Time won\u2019t make your faith weaker, it will make it stronger!<\/span><\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2010 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \"\"(618) 614-3070<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 4:20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, Truth to Learn While waiting for God to fulfill His promise, Abraham\u2019s faith got stronger, and he gave glory to God. Behind the Words The Greek word translated \u201cwaver\u201d is diakrin\u014d. This word […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[204,160,330,637,638,639],"class_list":["post-1466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-faith","tag-glory","tag-promise","tag-strengthened","tag-unbelief","tag-waver"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-nE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}