The faith of Abraham is quite astonishing when you read his story in Genesis. Hebrews mentions Abraham’s faith twice, y’all. Anytime scripture mentions something more than once, I believe it is reiterated for a purpose and God wants us to take notice. Abraham’s faith was noted in several different instances in Hebrews…
1. When he was called to go into an unknown place that God told him he would receive as an inheritance, he went
2. He lived in tents and made his home in these lands by faith, like a stranger in a foreign country
3. He offered his promised son as a sacrifice when God told him to do so. He was willing to follow through in faith.
A man that walked with God and just didn’t listen, but obeyed and trusted God completely! I’ve never lived outside the county in which I was born, so I couldn’t imagine pitching a tent in a land that its inhabitants didn’t realize was mine. In knowing that, I think it might be easy to look on self in that time, but if you notice when you read in Genesis, everywhere that Abraham went, he made an altar to the Lord. He placed Him first. Now, I know that we can’t literally build an altar to God everywhere we go, but we can put Him
first in everything we do! If our desire is to seek Him first in ALL things, we are building altars wherever we go!
When I think about Abraham being willing to kill His own son as a burnt offering, because the Lord tested Him, how would I respond? He was confident in his response to Isaac’s questions about where the lamb was, by saying “The Lord will provide a lamb.” See, before even walking up the mountain, Abraham knew the promise that God had made to him through Isaac. He may have not understood how it was going to happen, but he knew that Isaac would surely live or be brought back to life if he had to kill him…because God had said through Isaac his offspring would be reckoned!
Do we remember the promises that God has made to us when we face a testing time in our life? Do we trust His word to be unchanging, even when the current circumstances seem to contradict what we are seeing or what we are being called to do? We must remember that if God has promised you something, He isn’t going to break that promise! We can trust Him to follow through and know that He changes not! When you live by faith and trust the Lord, things maybnot always make sense in the natural…but we can rest assured that God has a purpose for you and wants to use you or what you may go through to bring Him glory! We must be willing to sacrifice things in our lives to follow Him. It won’t always be easy and it will hurt to let some things go…but He always has something better waiting like a ram in the thicket to take its place!
Friends, as we grow in relationship with God, we will look like a stranger in a foreign land. This world is not our home…we are just pitching our tents right now…but be not dismayed…as a believer in the finished work of Calvary, there is a mansion with your name on the door right now. It’s promised to you.
Oh, the faith of Abraham. Help us Lord to not forget your promises to us and live in complete obedience to your will and your way. You will surely bless us…bless us so much that we will be like Abraham as he looked at the stars in the sky to number his descendants…too many to count!
Thank you for your faithfulness to us!
