Faith Accounted
By Anthony Casperson
1-31-26

This past week held one of those anniversaries that would best be forgotten, but was on my mind anyway. It had been two years, this last Monday, since I had the medical procedure that has left me with painful numbness along half the back of my head.

Two years of pain. Two years of dizziness, if I overuse my neck. Two years since I was no longer able to work at the job I’d had. Two years of waiting for healing and hope that feel like will never come.

Sure, the amount of pain and dizziness has lessened along those years. And the neck surgery I had nine months later added its own issues. But the past two years have felt like a long period of waiting and wondering and feeling let down.

Gritting my teeth and continuing on felt like all I could do, both physically and spiritually. Absolutely, I have experienced enough of life with God to know that he’s faithful and able to do great things, even in the midst of the difficulties of life. Anybody reading these blogs long enough has heard me speak to this.

But there has been a part of me that’s wondered for a long time when some of that healing and help might finally be pointed my way.

Such thoughts had been on my mind last weekend while I was facing the coming anniversary. However, God wanted to remind me of what his faithfulness looked like. He spoke to me through a couple of sermons I heard last Sunday. But it was during my morning bible reading that day where he prepared me to be able to accept the words from the sermons.

And it’s this passage that I want to share here for people waiting upon God’s faithfulness.

The passage in question came from Genesis 15, but a little bit of context is useful to understand what’s going on here. Abram—who would eventually be renamed Abraham, but that hadn’t happened yet—had followed God’s call to move to the land of Canaan. He lived a wandering lifestyle in a land foreign to his ancestors. Yet despite this, God promised the land to Abram’s descendants—despite Abram’s lack of children.

And in the chapter just previous to our focus today, Abram’s nephew Lot—who had joined Uncle Abram in travelling to Canaan—had been captured along with many others. But Abram figured he had a particular set of skills, and gathered a contingent from among his servants to go to battle against the plunderers.

Abram led his troops to victory, setting free the captives. Then, with the spoils granted to him through that victory, he went to a king who was a priest of Yahweh and offered one tenth of the spoils to God. Through this king-priest, named Melchizedek, God blessed Abram once again.

So, we see that Abram had faithfully followed God’s ways for quite some time. God had blessed Abram time and again. He even promised Abram that the world would be blessed through him, and the land of Canaan would be an inheritance for Abram’s descendants.

And in Genesis 15:1, God once again speaks to Abram. He tells Abram to not fear because Yahweh is his shield. And Abram’s reward shall be great. It’s an amazing promise of God’s faithfulness. A reminder of God’s presence alongside those who are his.

But in verses 2-3, we see what it is that had caused Abram to fear, what caused him to doubt and question. Abram knew the promises God had made to him. He knew the promise of blessing and descendants and inheritance. But as the years flew past, it felt to him like they would never happen.

Abram flat out asked God what kind of reward he could possibly receive. Because as it looked at the moment, his heir would be one of his servants. The blessings and promises had sounded like a lineage of direct children, not an adopted line. But all that he could see was lesser version of the blessing.

Following this, God made clear that his promise was for a line through a son. And not just a son, but a line and lineage that would be as uncountable as the stars of the night’s sky. As uncountable as the sand on the seashore.

With this promise, Abram believed. And God accounted that faith as righteousness.

From a human perspective, nothing changed for Abram at that time. It wasn’t that night when he would learn that his wife was pregnant. I mean, it would be a while before Ishmael would be born. And then thirteen more years before Sarai—eventually renamed Sarah—would become pregnant with the promised son, Isaac.

We’re talking at least a decade and a half between this promise and the fulfillment. And this wasn’t the first time the promise of descendants came to Abram. So, this isn’t an easy wait.

We can also see that nothing changed about Abram’s physical condition. It remained the same both before and after this moment of accounting faith as righteousness.

There was nothing tangible or visible for Abram at that moment. Nothing other than the same promise of God’s faithfulness that he’d already had. Yet, that renewed reminder of God’s faithfulness built faith in Abram that was right and blameless and true. It renewed and reinvigorated the relationship that Abram had with God.

And that faith was accounted as righteousness.

It wasn’t just trust that God would fulfill his promise to Abram that led to that righteous faith. If it were conditional like that, then the faith would’ve had to wait until after Isaac’s birth—or at least his conception.

No, the faith wasn’t in the promised blessing, but in the Promiser of the blessing. The God who was Abram’s shield. His protector. His refuge. The One who had been with Abram through so much already and would continue to perform his wonderful work through the man with faith that was accounted as righteousness.

And that’s not to say that Abram was perfect. He’d have many failures and missteps and doubts after this accounted faith. But that never discounted this righteousness.

For followers of Jesus today, we have that same God as our shield. We have a Savior who is faithful to his promise for us as he was for the one to Abram.

Even though our circumstances might look the same both before and after a reminder of God’s faithfulness, that doesn’t mean the promise is never going to happen. Nor does it mean that faith in waiting is worthless.

It’s a moment of righteousness. Accounted faith that draws us closer to the person of God that he calls us to be.

There will be more failures and doubts and missteps, but none of that will discount our faith. Nothing will remove the righteousness as we grow more and more in our relationship with God.

So, let’s remember the Promiser of every heavenly blessing. Our shield. The One who stands faithful. And accounts our faith as righteousness before him. No matter how many years we have to wait for the fulfillment.