Abram trusted God's word to him and left his homeland to go to a distant land. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis%2012&version=NKJV
"So Abram left as the Lord had told him." Wow, what a simple statement, but imagine what that involved. He had a lot of family members, servants, flocks and herds, and stuff. He moved them all. What an act of obedience. I know what a hassle moving is, even just a little houseful of stuff. Imagine moving thousands of animals and a whole bunch of people and stuff, going on a big camping trip through the country. This faith was equated by God to righteousness. We know that Abram wasn't totally righteous, having just lied to the king of Egypt about Sarai, his wife, saying that she was his sister. But Abram's faith was so true, it made him righteous in God's eyes. Abram's faith was not cheap or words only, but backed up by action-- obedience-- and thus it was TRUE faith. This is the type of faith God expects of us, too.
This brings me to think about the difficulties we experience in our lives. Could God be checking to see if we are backing up our verbal faith in Him with action? Perhaps the action is simply waiting patiently, one day at a time, worshiping Him with all our hearts even when we are afraid or depressed. Praising Him changes things inside of us. Is this the "sacrifice of praise" God wants? It is mentioned in the Book of Hebrews-- "Through Jesus then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of the lips that acknowledge his name"--Hebrews 13:15.
May we have the faith, backed up by obedience, that Abram demonstrated!
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