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“And (Abraham) believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).
Abraham was an old man and childless when God told him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars of heaven. Sarah, his wife, was past childbearing age. Yet he knew enough about God’s track record to be confident that whatever God promised would happen. So he trusted God’s promise, and the text says that God “counted it to him as righteousness.”
The active element in Abraham’s faith was a commanding confidence – A confident willingness to submit to God’s Word. “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go to the place he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out from there, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). And James wrote, “You see that faith was activated by his works, and faith was made complete by his works; and the scripture was fulfilled, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness’ – and he was called the Friend of God” (James 2:22,23).
Abraham is the person most frequently cited in the scriptures as an example of the role of faith in God’s plan of salvation. “Know then that those who believe are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you all nations will be blessed.’ So then, those who believe are blessed with Abraham the man of faith” (Galatians 3:7-9).
Abraham’s faithfulness was a result of his decision to trust that God always tells the truth. Today, we desperately need to return to the Abrahamic kind of faith. Far from mere naivety or blind faith, his belief was He knew that believing in the promises God made was a rational choice. And unlike those who think so emotions faith is sufficient, abraham was Loyal For God’s sake, even in situations that require great courage. Whether in the operation of his intellect, his emotions, or his will, Abraham’s point of departure was always this: What has God said? And even after all these years, he remains the spiritual ancestor of those who take bold, sacrificial steps based on the reliability of what God has said.
“Faith begins not with what the human intellect has discovered… (but) with what God has revealed” (William Barclay).
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com AreYouaChristian.com
