The Bible says in Ephesians 3:20, “Glory belongs to God, whose power is at work in us. By this power he can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine” (GW). Faith starts with stretching the imagination. It always begins with a concept, a vision, a dream, a mental picture. It always starts with an idea.

God came to Abraham one day and said, “Abraham, I’m going to make you the father of a great nation. You’re going to have a lot of descendants.” For Abraham, that was hard to believe. He didn’t have any kids, and he was well into his 90s. “Sure, God,” he must have thought. “Whatever you say.”

So God gave Abraham a picture: “After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision . . . ‘A son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.’ He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:1, 4-6 NIV).

God stretched Abraham’s imagination by telling him to look up at the stars and try to count them—that’s how many descendants God promised that Abraham would have. The entire Jewish nation came from this man.

Abraham had something he could visualize. Every night when he walked outside, he could look up and say, “That’s going to be my family!”

God grows our faith by stretching our imagination, by giving us a dream. What you can dream and believe in faith, you can achieve.