Example to Follow I

Sunday 21 August
READ: Isa.51:1-2
MORE LESSON: Gen. 12:1-10

There is a clear instruction in today's reading that calls all seekers of God to attention, Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him: Isa.51:2. Abraham is one unique man whose name is a reference point, across all religions and generations. His life before God is a pivotal story in the history of Jews and Christians. All worshippers of God are told to follow the pattern of Abraham in serving God. What was the peculiarity of father Abraham that Jehovah God could ask men of all generations to emulate him? Some people have suggested that Abraham lives on though dead because he is the father of faith, the friend of God and the centre of covenant that God instituted with both physical and spiritual Israelites. I quite agree with all these but the real reason why Abraham's life is still speaking though dead for thousands of years now is OBEDIENCE. This characteristic of Abraham is what God asks us to look on to in this great patriarch's life. Abraham had his faults as every man born of a woman has but he uniquely obeyed God.
The fifteen chapters of Genesis (11-25) are stringed with Abraham's life of obedience to God. We will trace some together so that each one of us will really be able to “look to Abraham”. He obeyed God when he was told to leave his roots and origin in his father's house to follow God (Gen.12: 1-5). He obeyed God by preferring Lot to himself though he was older and brought Lot, his nephew, out of Ur. He asked Lot to choose first and he would choose after Lot, Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves: Phil.2:3.
Abraham obeyed God in paying of tithes (Gen.14:20). No wonder he was a prosperous man, as his servant testified (Gen. 24:35). Do you want to be great? Then, follow Abraham's pattern and tithe all that God gives you as income so that you can enter into material prosperity like father Abraham.
Abraham obeyed God by believing God's promises to him even in contradicting circumstances, And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith giving glory to God: Rom.4:19-20. Will you be considered righteous in God's sight? Then believe the promises of God no matter what you are passing through now.

PRAYER/ACTION
* I receive help from God to emulate Abraham the father of faith.
*Lord, give me strength to live a life of obedience to You.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father, I dedicate my life to You, release Your grace in my life, make me a reflection of Your light to disperse darkness everywhere I go, in the name of Jesus.