Walking And Waiting

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.” (Genesis 17:1-2)

So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. (Galatians 3:9)

In Sunday’s sermon, Pastor Richard pointed out that in Genesis 17, God instructed Abraham in how to live before informing Abraham of the covenant God would establish. We, though, live in a time where it is normal to hear people, even people of God, bargaining for covenant: God, if you do such-and-such for me, then I will love you more/serve you more/give to your kingdom more. But that isn’t God’s way. The agenda of God is launched with a mandate: God wants us to believe His word, and God wants us to walk in His truth. The mandate is a call to faithfulness long before we receive the specifics concerning God’s covenant with us.

This is what we see in Abraham. Years passed between the moment of God’s initial revelation to Abraham and the moment of Abraham seeing his son Isaac, and through those years Abraham believed while waiting to see. Abraham was not a perfect man, but he nonetheless held a particular commendation that has remained unblemished through the ages: Abraham believed God.

We are not perfect. For some of us, many years have passed and we still await some tangible evidence of what God has promised. We've made some mistakes while in this waiting phase. But as we wait, we live as Abraham did: faithful to our Lord. It is this faithfulness to God that opens the door to knowing and living God’s agenda. My prayer for us today is that we, like Abraham, will believe and do what God has said.

Lord God, thank You for speaking to us! We believe Your word. We are grateful to embark, every morning, with Your agenda ruling our lives. We have faith. We speak in faith. We live by faith. Give us the grace to always walk faithfully before You.

All Scripture references are from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.