Totally: Getting to Know Our Knowing, Present, Capable, Caring GodSample

While Abram was still living with his father and extended family, God called him to leave his country, people, and family to go to an unknown land that God would show him. God also made Abram a promise. We call this promise the Abrahamic covenant. God promised to make Abram a great nation and to bless him and others through him. All Abram had to do was trust God to come through on the promise.

Because people hadn’t really changed since the Adamic and Noahic covenants, God made the Abrahamic covenant dependent upon God’s actions alone. Abraham didn’t have to do anything; just believe. By keeping His own covenant to Abram, God would show the world what He was like and receive the praise that He deserved from the people He had created for that purpose (see Isaiah 43:21).

As soon as Abram’s father died, 75-year-old Abram did what God had told him to do long before. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, their households, and their possessions and set out without knowing where God was taking him. Abram had grown up in a household where false gods were worshipped (see Joshua 24:2), but Abram had a mind of his own and trusted the One True God completely.

When Abram and his entourage reached Canaan, God promised to give the land to Abram’s offspring (his children), but Abram’s wife Sarai was barren (could not have children). In spite of what seemed to be a big problem, Abram believed God’s promise without question and built an altar to worship God in that very spot.

Even after much time had passed without a child, Abram continued to trust God. A pagan king offered him a fortune for his help in military conquest, but he turned it down because he didn’t want anyone to get credit for anything God might do for him. In response, God renewed His promise to Abram.

Even though God hadn’t yet given Abram a son, Abram had faith in God, and God counted Abram’s faith as righteousness. To be righteous is to be morally acceptable to God. Abram’s faith made him morally acceptable to God.

When we put our faith in God, we enjoy His presence and blessings. The only thing keeping us from experiencing Him the way we want to and He wants us to is our own disbelief.