Abram Was Righteous Through Faith

(Watch out for this devotional space every Sunday. I am hoping to increase it to producing it daily.)

Christian journey should always put faith at its centre.(Genesis 13 1-18) When Abram was on his journey to the place God had promised him he took with him his brother Lot. On the way their possessions which included animals were so many that their herdsman began to quarrel. This necessitated their parting ways. Abram asked Lot to make a choice of where to go. He could have just told Lot to move to some other place and he remained where he was. In fact he asked Lot to make a choice. Abram had confidence in God. He did not make his choice first. He knew God would not let him down. He had total faith in God. After Lot had made his choice of land God came with a message of all time: “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north, south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring for ever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.” Vs 16.

The choice had to be made because there had been quarrels between Abram and Lot’s herdsmen. Since Abram had come up with the suggestion it could have sounded natural for him to have done his home work and schemed to take the good land. Instead he says “If you go to the left, I go to the right; if you go to the right, I go to left.” Vs 9.

It follows that when we have faith in God we are not selfish. We want others to have their way first. This we do because we are confident in God who is in charge of our well being. When we do not have faith in God we become schemers, crafters, selfish and greedy. We have no time to give God a chance.

Paul calls Galatians foolish.(Gal 3 vs 1). He had for some time observed them doing well in their faith but at this point they were now turning to human effort.(Vs 3) Paul had noticed that there was a lot of lobbying and seeking for positions using human effort and not waiting upon the Lord. He was appealing to them to have the faith that was in Abram.

The challenge is to us all. The moment we trust in ourselves and not in God we develop all sorts of negatives and selfish desires in our lives. We begin to not trust in God for our needs. We can do anything to get what we want. Some can even kill for Zuma to be made president and not to put their faith in their electoral system. Here at home Zimbabwean politicians do not trust their own people so they beat them to vote for them. What a travesty! Let us learn from Abram who was blessed because of his faith in God. Faith in God will never let us down, instead we will be blessed over and over. Abram at the end got the best. Barack Obam in his book "The Audacity of Hope" which I finished reading a few days before he wan the presidential election has demonstrated how hope and faith in God can do to us. Let’s try faith. God bless.