Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness
Genesis 15:6
Dear Father Abraham, our father in faith and inspiration in our faith walk with God! His faith journey through his life is one that fascinates me a lot, like how can a man leave the comfort of his father’s house, the comfort of a predictable life into a journey of the unknown with God. His faith walk with God continued even as he made choices of places to settle, how to interact with people, his wife, his servants, how to go to war, and so on. His life’s journey was almost solely dependent on taking and following instructions from God.
Up until yesterday, before I listened to this sermon by apostle Arome Osayi – I somewhat thought that it was almost an easy task for Abraham to take God’s instructions and follow them through. Apostle Arome Osayi did a great job in expounding the life and journey of Abraham from the Ur of the Chaldeans to the place where God had prepared for Him. And I saw that Abraham just like every one of us might just have struggled a little bit in the absolute obedience of God. When Abram first received the instruction to leave his country, he left but settled in Haran temporarily for about 50 years according to theologians. This was not exactly God’s plan for him. God wanted him to leave the Chaldeans but of course to proceed to Canaan land that would be revealed to him as he followed the Lord.
But we are not focusing on his struggle with completely obeying God, we are going to draw strength from the spirit of God through God’s word about Abraham. Afterward, God says that Abraham believed the Lord and that was credited to him as righteousness. This means that God Himself endorsed Abraham to be in the right standing with Him. This was way before the free gift of salvation was given to us by Jesus Christ. Hence, in my opinion, it was way more than a big deal to be called righteous by our God way back in those days. Why did God accredit our papa Abraham with His righteousness? Because he believed!
I am learning over and over that taking every of God’s instructions and following through with it starts off by first believing in Him:
- Believing that He who gave the instructions knows exactly why He gave the instruction.
- Believing that He who gave the instruction, gave it for our best interest; either to build us up, stretch out our faith in Him or take us to His predestined future for us.
- Believing that God is sovereign.
Is it ok to doubt God? Perhaps yes, I mean that is the default human nature of a fallible man or woman- to doubt a good God who has provided salvation to the world free of charge. With that said, is it ok to stay in this state of doubt? Absolutely not! We can take a leaf or two from our father Abraham. Genesis 15 verse 2 highlights to us how Abram voiced out his doubt to God. He said to God, “O sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t have a son? since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth”. Then God responded to him by reassuring Him of His promise. God went ahead to give him a pictorial analogy of His promises if only He would keep obeying and following God.
Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but 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.”
Genesis 15:4-5
This above dialogue points us to the kind of relationship we can have with God, the kind of relationship God wants with all of His children. He wants us to commune with Him constantly, He wants us to express ourselves to Him, while we listen to His response as well. Even more so now that Jesus Christ has given us free and easy access to Him.
My dear brother or sister in Christ, I am writing to you today to encourage you to believe in God. Believe in the instruction that He has given you, if you are in doubt express your doubts to Him and ask Him to help your unbelief. Refuse to stay in that place of unbelief because it may cost you a lot if you choose to stay there. It cost Abram about 50 years of delay when he chose to stay in Haran instead of proceeding from the Chaldeans to the land God was taking Him to(Acts 7:4) Imagine the great things Abram might have missed out on in those 50 years of partially obeying God.
The Lord does not want that for you my dear, so take God’s word and instructions for your life and run with it now! And to my dear friend who is still seating on the fence about this Jesus thing, I urge you to join the family today. God loves you so much and He has led you to read this article because He wants to shine His light upon you and open you up to some revelations about Him.
My good God wants to lead to you to the way everlasting, He wants to set you on His path of righteousness, that you may glory in His wonders! Say yes to Him today by saying the prayer here