"Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness." (Gen 15:6, NIV) We often lose the message of this scripture due to our familiarity with the story of Abraham. Sometimes familiarity with a material or a story leads to oversight. We often take for granted that Abraham believed God... Oh, He believed God, what's the big deal? Everybody believes God! But that is not true. This was a time when there was no Bible, no preacher, no church. Nothing to build your faith or give you some degree of assurance about God. No record of any miracles, just nothing. And out of the blue, this man Abram heard a strange voice telling him to leave his kindred and follow... and he just obeyed. To tell you the truth, many of us - including me, would have had a hard time believing God. But Abram believed God when there was no reason to, when there was no proof. And what exactly did Abram believe about God? He believed God will do whatever He said He will do. He believed that if God said it, the He will do it! Whatever gave Him this assurance in his heart remains a mystery..
God will do it. How many of us actually believe that. Or is this just one of the religious rhetorics with which we pacify ourselves. Today, with all the Bibles we have, all the preachers we have, all the evidence of miracles we have seen and with even the presence of the Holy Spirit, we still find it difficult to believe God. We still find it difficult to believe that God will do whatever He says He will do. Now, you understand why God had to count Abram as a righteous person. We often pride ourselves as being children of Abraham, yet for some of us, our life shows nothing of the strong faith and unrelenting belief of our patriach, Abraham
This scripture encourages me a lot as I come to realize that it was not Abraham's prayers, or Bible reading or fastings or church going or giving that brought him approval with God, but his belief - his faith. While all these other things are good, in the end what God is after is our belief. Did we really believe that He will do it? God will do whatever He said He will do. That is what we need to believe; that is what God regards as righteousness.