Monday Motivational - Abraham

​                                                                        Monday Motivational – Abraham
 
      Hey guys, welcome to this weeks Monday Motivational! In our Camp bible study we have been walking through Galatians and within it Paul has been referencing Abraham quite a bit. Quick shameless plug about our bible study, we only have two left before summer (May 4th and 18th at 8 PM at the KCAB office) so if you can come, we would love to have you there! Back to Abraham. There are many reasons Paul speaks about Abraham in his letter to the churches in Galatia and it would take way to long to dive into each of them. So rather than doing that for this weeks Monday Motivational, I think we should instead look at just one facet of Abraham’s life. I want to take it back to when he was just called Abram. This week we are going to look at God’s covenant with Abram. It is important to note that a covenant is the same as what we would call a promise today. This covenant came from God, which meant it was concrete and guaranteed unlike most of our promises we make today though.
 
     In Genesis chapter 15 we find the account of God’s covenant with Abram. We are going to look at two specific details of this covenant conversation that regularly get overlooked. The first detail that I feel gets frequently overlooked is Abram’s initial response to God telling him “look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them…So shall your offspring be.” (15:5). After hearing this Abram’s response definitely involved lots of questions and what seems to be a little bit of doubt (verses 7-16), but verse 6 tells us that Abram “believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”. This happened before the birth, life, and sacrifice of Jesus, so righteousness was obtained through deeds (obedience to the law). Yet, we see here that before Abram was obedient in deed he was counted righteous because of his faith. I don’t know if Abram knew that faith was all it took to be counted as righteousness, but we, having the Word of God in it’s entirety know that truth. Should our faith lead to works that are glorifying to God and His kingdom? Of course! But without faith being in place first, our works are done mutely. Start your days off with putting your faith in God to provide, protect, and produce works opportunities—it will be counted to you as righteousness if you do!
 
      The second thing that I feel gets overlooked is the actual constructs of the covenant. We find these constructs in verse 18 which says, “On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.””. This covenant was made with Abram, but it was for his “offspring”. In our study of Galatians Paul points out this covenant was “made to Abraham and to his offspring” (3:16) singular not offsprings plural. Paul makes this point because it was in Christ that the covenant would be fulfilled. In the same way that the new covenant is fulfilled only in Christ’s sacrifice. Both of these covenants were made for Christ and are fulfilled through Christ. It is only through our journey of sanctification (becoming more Christlike) that we get to be a participant in them.
 
     We serve a God that is deserving of our faith being put in Him regardless of our circumstances. We have a Savior that cares enough about us to share what was promised to Him with us. That is amazing to think about! So amazing that we should want to share with anyone and everyone that is in our life! This week I challenge you to take time everyday and express to God that your faith is in Him and the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus, but don’t stop there…tell others about it too!
 
Happy Monday!