"How" Lord will your will be accomplished in me?

In today’s first reading, Gen. 15: 1-12, 17-18, we reflect upon Abram’s questioning of God: how is it ever possible that my descendants will be as numerous as the sands on the seashore when “I keep being childless….See, you have given me no offspring.”

Our complaint will vary: “Lord, how can_____________ be; you have not given me _______.”  Abram follows God’s instructions to offer sacrifice and praise.  Not trusting that his offering of sacrificial animals is safe on the altar, Abram stays with them throughout the evening, falls into “a trance” and is enveloped by a “deep, terrifying darkness.”  It was at this occasion that God makes His covenant with Abram. 

At our worst, life, too, at times, becomes this terrifying darkness.  Hopelessness can set in and seem to take a forever hold on our lives.  God seems to have abandoned us to our worst fears.  However, God is faithful even when our hopes seem dead.  God is with us in our despair, just as much as He was with Abram in his agonies.  God triumphs even when we have no inkling how His plans for our well-being or that of our families, our societies, our communities, our church, our world will be realized. In our darkest moments, as with Abram, God makes and/or renews His covenant with us in and through and with Christ Jesus, our God and Savior.

Lord, I pray for the faith of Abram. May I have the courage to "stay with" that of which I am afraid, knowing that you will come through for me.  May I cling to You and your promises in the deepest darkest moments of my life.  You are God and there is no other!