Issue 2003 #1
Table of Contents:
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Bible Role Models: Abraham
The first role model we will look at is Abraham. Why Abraham? Because he
represents most of what we know about faith as written in the Bible. Chapter
eleven of the book of Hebrews has much to say about Abraham and his faith in
the promises of God.
One of the first acts of faith by Abraham, was when he was asked to leave his
country, family and friends and go to a place unknown to him and that would
later become his inheritance. How many of us have heard the call of God to
pick up and leave our familiar surroundings and go to another place quite
unfamiliar to us? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as
righteousness. (Genesis 15:6 NKJV).
Another act of faith concerned a promise from God that he and Sara would have
a son in their old age. This would be next to impossible because of their age.
God was establishing his covenant between himself and Abraham. Do we have faith
to believe God for a miracle in our lives that would go beyond our imagination?
I hope so.
A third act of faith required Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son, Isaac,
on an altar. What have you and I sacrificed to God that we treasured and that
was a test of our faith?
We see from these examples the faith that was required by Abraham to believe
that God would fulfill his promises. It was only through the obedience of
Abraham that these things came about. Three times in the book of Hebrews it
says, "by faith, Abraham." God tested Abraham these three times to see if he
would obey. Abraham did what God required and he was blessed for his obedience.
We can be thankful for Abraham's obedience because from that we have been
blessed also. (Gen. 18:18).
-- Don Wilde
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