It Starts Small

On our Journey through God’s Word to discover pursuing righteousness, we stop in Genesis to one of our beloved people Abraham. We learn two important ingredients about how to pursue righteousness.

First, let us look at the whole passage.

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” ² But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³ And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” ⁴ And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” ⁵ And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” ⁶ And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Genesis 15:1-6

The Lord spoke to Abram using a beautiful teaching tool, the night sky full of stars. A short lifetime ago I lived in an area of Colorado that was considered a dark zone. It meant there was very little to no light pollution at night. My dad lives on a ranch that is so far removed from civilization that the night time sky is just a splendor. When you spend much of your life in the city, you do not realize there is billions upon billions of stars in the night time sky.

The Lord said Look up at the stars and count them if you are able. Of course we know he was not able and that was the whole point. The Lord then said that his offspring would be as numerous and uncountable as the stars.

God had told Abram he would have a son and from that son a nation would be born. A people of God would be born. On this night, the Lord comes to Abram and reminds him of His promise by showing him a vision of the future generations.

Now Abram was no spring chicken at this point in his life. Neither was his wife. We learn that by this he is in his 70s (Genesis 12:4). Abram was 99 years old when he made the covenant with him and renamed him Abraham (Gen 17:9). Put all the human facts of life together and we can understand why Abram was pondering to the Lord that night.

The Lord often operates in ways that beyond our human understanding and with timing that seems strange to us. But faced with a seemingly impossible situation, God’s Word says he believed!

Biblical faith is not just the acknowledgement of facts about God. It is trust and reliance on Him based on His Word. This scripture reminds us also that the Lord still desires to use us in the later years of our lives. No matter our age, we must always have the lessons of faith and trust to learn in the school of God.

The second thing Abraham teaches us that the Lord responds to our faith IN Him. The Lord is pleased when we trust Him. Faith in the Lord has outcomes and results. The result of Abraham’s trust was the Lord reckoned him to righteousness. The KJV uses the word reckon. It means to impute or put on another person’s account or to credit.

In other words, in response to Abraham’s faith and trust, the Lord declared he was righteous and justified in His sight. This is a powerful truth in God’s Word. Through faith in Jesus Christ, God credits us, too with righteousness. We become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ² Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 5:1-2

Today, let us ponder upon the our faith. Are we simply relying on the facts to know about God or are we pursuing Him in trust and building our faith in having an experiential relationship with Him?

Are you in a season of discovering God’s purpose and plan for you? Are you pursuing Him or your own pursuits?

Have you heard the Lord speak over your life and you are struggling in the season of waiting for His timing? Take heart that His timing is perfect.

Do you believe?

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