Obedience of Faith!
Verse for Today: Monday, September 10, 2012
Genesis 12:2 – I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
When God makes a promise to man, it is a promise of grace. God doesn’t need to make promises to the undeserving because no one merits any favor from God. But it pleases God to make promises, out of His grace, to us by which He gives us what we do not deserve. When God makes promises, He expects man to respond positively to each promise. God promised Abram that He would make him a great nation, and God expected Abram to leave all that he had including his native land and all relatives to go to an unknown land that was yet to be shown to him. Response from Abram has to be the result of Abram’s vision of the glory of God. If he stays in the Chaldean city of Ur or even Haran which is closer to Canaan, it won’t be possible to receive the promised blessing. There are often temptations of various kinds to stay back or stay on the wayside rather than go forward. But the promise must involve a response by faith and in obedience. All the blessings promised to Abram have been waiting, as long as he stayed at Haran, because his response was partial. He started well, but didn’t end where he should have ended. Abram received the promise to become the father of many nations, but he was a childless father at that time. So the promise necessarily involved children to be born to him. Unless Abram was willing to take God at His Word and take the steps of faith, he would not quality to receive the blessings that are set apart for him. Abram had the great challenge to go to a new place that was yet to be seen, with the expectation of a series of blessings including becoming a blessing to others. Today God wants to make all of His children a great blessing to others if only we respond to His call with full obedience. Our disobedience and faithlessness often stand on our way to accomplishing God’s best in our lives.
Dear reader, do you feel that you are falling short of what God has promised? Do you often wonder why you are not reaching where you ought to have reached and why God’s promises are not being fulfilled in your life? But a closer look at the Word of God shows us doubtlessly that God expects us to obey Him unconditionally without which many of His promises cannot become a reality in our lives. The obedience of God’s children is indispensable for them to receive blessings from the Lord. If we are disobedient, we lose our privilege to pray to Him and ask for blessings because we have already grieved the Lord and His Spirit through our disobedience. Abraham had to obey the call, separate himself from all others in his land including his kith and kin and prove to God that he believed in God unconditionally. He had to believe that he was a father of the multitude in waiting, which was what he did. Abraham’s life is a challenge and a platform for us to learn how faith works through obedience in the lives of God’s children. In other words, God proves to us that He is not out there to simply distribute good things to all who ask Him. In fact, He gives specific blessings to those who are obedient and have full faith in Him. When we do not get answers to our prayers, we need to examine our lives to see the areas where we have fallen short of full and unconditional obedience to His commands and straighten out our lives with Him. Of course, if we ask, He will give us the strength to obey Him. Even our obedience and faith emanate from God through His power and strength which He gives to those who seek after Him. Let us today ask God in prayer to give us the strength to believe on Him and claim His promises by the faith which He imparts in our souls.
Hebrews 11:8 – By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he didn’t know where he was going.
Thought for Today
Faith walks on obedience lane to reach the promises of God.
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