Michael Youssef - Counting Stars in an Empty Sky

Counting Stars When We Can See None

Have you ever wondered, Has God abandoned me? Does He still keep His promises?

Have you ever asked yourself, What is Gods plan for my life? or What is His plan for my children?

Have you ever pleaded with God in prayer, then wondered, Why doesnt He answer? Why does He delay, month after month, year after year?

Have you ever thought, Is it a sin to feel that God has let me down and forgotten me ? Should I continue to trust Him?

Have you ever tried to do Gods will in your own waywith disastrous results? Have you ever tried to get ahead of Gods will and speed up His timetable?

Have you ever wanted a child of your own so badly that you would do anythinganything!to make it happen, yet the door to parenthood was slammed in your face and bolted shut?

If you can identify with any of these feelings and experiences, then the story of Abraham speaks to you. History changes, culture changes, technology changes, but human nature hasnt changed since the human race began. We are all the same under the skin. The story of Abraham is your story and mine.

What do you have in common with Abraham, this Old Testament man of faith? Not much, right? After all, Abraham lived four thousand years ago amid strange cultures and customs in a distant region of the world.

What does a man of his era have to say to people who use the internet and smartphones, who struggle with income taxes and credit card debt, who work in office buildings and get stuck in traffic, who worry about terrorism and nuclear war and the international debt crisis? What does a man of Abrahams era have to say to us in the twenty-first century?

And yet, as we study the story of Abraham and his wife Sarah, we find that Abrahams life speaks to us in surprising ways. In fact, the closer we look at Abraham, the more we realize that, in every way that truly matters, hes just like you and me. His story is the story of your journey of faith and mine.

Abraham was a man of faith, and we can learn how to live a life of faith by studying his story. He was a flawed man, just as you and I are flawed human beings. He sinned, he disobeyed, he tried to force Gods hand and bend Gods willwith disastrous results. Yet despite Abrahams sins and imperfections, he was called the friend of God.

The pivotal moment in the story of Abrahamand the key insight for our livesis found in Genesis 15:5. There, God takes Abraham outside at night and shows him the heavens. Look up at the sky and count the starsif indeed you can count them.... So shall your offspring be.

When God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans and promised to make of him a great nation, Abraham was seventy years old, his wife was sixty, and they were childless. When Abraham left Harran for the promised land, he was seventy-five. Ten years later, when Abraham was eighty-five, God renewed His promise to Abraham and told him that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the night sky. God invited Abraham to count the stars, and those stars not only symbolized Abrahams descendantsthey were also emblems of Gods promises and Abrahams faith.

In years to come, Abraham would go through times of darkness, times when there were no stars to be seen. He would wonder, Has God abandoned me? Will He still keep His promise? What is His plan for my lifeand for my children? Why doesnt He answer my prayer? Why does He delay?