JUNE 7, 2024
Topic: FATHER OF FAITH
Text: GENESIS 12: 1-8
Memory Verse: “So Abram went, as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him, Abram was seventy five years old when he departed from Haran” – Genesis 12:4.
Abraham is one of the very greatest figures in the religious history of human race. Two religions, Judaism, and Islam and the Christian faith look back to him as one of their spiritual forebears. Abram regarded the call he received in our text for today as divine and authoritative, and it was too definitive to be misunderstood. The fact that the land was not named increased the demand on Abram’s faith and made his self-surrender the more absolute.
In Hebrew 11:8-10, we are told that his obedience was counted to him as faith. He looked forward to the city, which has foundations, whose builder, and maker is God. Apart from being a redeemed individual, God strongly fortified Abram with covenant promises of prosperity, plenteous posterity and greatness. He and his descendants constitute a channel by which God is blessing the people of the world. This why we sing the chorus
“Abraham’s blessings are mine 2ce
I am blessed, in the morning
I am blessed, in the evening
Abraham’s blessings are mine”
Like any other human being, he had his weaknesses but he lived a life of faith, of obedience and a life that glorified God. In obedience, he was ready to offer Isaac the son of promise as a sacrifice as commanded by God. His faith saw beyond the sacrifice. Abraham breathed his last at the age of one-seventy-five years. He was victorious over death; the evidence of this is seen in Luke 16:23-26 also in Luke 13:28 which reads, “there you will weep and gnash your teeth, when you see Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob and all prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out.”
Is anyone serving God in obedience? Does anyone trust God in all circumstances? The life of Abraham should encourage us that if we love the Lord, obey Him, trust Him, our victory over death is guaranteed in Jesus’ name.
PRAYER: My Lord and my Father, thank you for the saints who have gone before us and are already reigning with you. May their lives encourage us to follow the path they have trod, so that we also will be with you in heaven in Jesus’ name Amen.