BELIVING ACCEPTANCE.

"If thou believeth ...thou mayest" Acts 8:3

               Edward Proffitt, Th.D.

 

The subject of chapter 15 of Genesis is a conversation between Jehovah and Abram. In the conversation the foundation of faith rest. Faith is a living, confident and obedient life.  It is based upon revelation, promise, covenant and solemn ratification. God said unto Abram I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward"(Genesis 15:1.

 

God promised Abram numerous off springs, "tell the stars if thou be able to number them...so shall thy seed be"(Genesis 15:5). That was not merely a temporal promise it was a spiritual blessing set in the framework of national prosperity, (Abram believed in the Lord and He counted it to him for righteousness'"(Genesis 15:6).

 

Abrams faith was in the personal, covenant Jehovah. It was not merely in a word, or sign, or a prospect, but "in the Lord". It was the gracious bond of relationship and of a covenant. Elements of the bond are acceptance, revelation, reward of obedience.

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Each element of that bond is allowed by faith. In life there is always discouragement and disappointment. No one is immune to them, but God never fails. When we need Him He is always there. God told Abram "Fear not Abram, I am thy shield" (Genesis 15:1). God divinely takes care of His own, He is all sufficient and ever present. 

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That word shield means impregnable defense and that is what God is. He is the believers shield against all the "fiery darts" of the evil one. God promised Abram a son as his heir. Abram in perplexity thought of adopting Eliezer as his son but God promised a genuine, real child of his own.

 

We as saints of God need to learn something, we need to learn how blind human reason is, and how feeble faith becomes when it tries to walk by sight, We need to understand how sure God's promises are, and how inexhaustible are his resource.

 

Faith in God is the key to the successful Christian life. The testimony of Abram is found in Genesis 15:6 "And he believed in the Lord". Belief in the Lord is an automatic cure for discouragement and disappointment.

 

So what was the ground of Abram's faith. It was not reason nor sense, it was the solemnly given clearly stated, perfectly sufficient, wholly word of God. That is a perfect description that is also the basis of Christian faith.,