“1Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.””
Ge 12:1–3
Abram was a very blessed man who is still today one of the greatest role models in world history for trusting in the Lord and walking by faith. But why did God call Abram, an ordinary man from Mesopotamia? Was it because Abram was a particularly righteous man who sought God wholeheartedly?
Well, Abram wasn’t even the first to call on the name of the Lord YHWH, it was Enosh, the grandson of Adam and Eve. Nor was Abram alone in his time in worshipping the Most High God, so did Melchizedek. Abram was not even the first to be called “righteous”, that was Noah.
The first thing we learn from the “Father of Faith”, then, is that the blessing Abram received was not due to his own righteousness, but to God’s calling. All Abram had to do to receive salvation was to believe in God.
The same applies to us today. Our salvation does not depend on our own righteousness, our prayers or our good works. No, our salvation depends on God’s own righteousness that he offers us. All we have to do is, like Abram, accept salvation by believing in God.
Prayer
Thank you God for the salvation and grace you offer me by believing in you. I pray that you will allow my faith to grow and bear rich fruit.