The LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect. And I will…multiply thee exceedingly.
—Genesis 17:1-2
In Abraham we see not only how God asks for and rewards faith, but also how He works faith by the gracious training that He gives. When God first called Abraham, He gave the great promise, “In Thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). When Abraham reached the land of Canaan, God met him with the promise that the land would belong to him. (See verse 7.) When he returned from battle, God again met him to renew the promise that his descendants would be numbered as the stars. (See Genesis 15:5.)
God sought to strengthen Abraham’s faith before the birth of Isaac, so He said, “Walk before Me, and be thou perfect. And I will…multiply thee exceedingly.” Again in the plains of Mamre, God asked, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14). God led Abraham step by step until his faith was perfected for full obedience in the sacrifice of Isaac. As “by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out” (Hebrews 11:8), so by faith, at the end of forty years, he was able to obey God’s will to the utmost—even when it appeared to conflict with all His promises.
Children of Abraham, the Father makes great demands on your faith. If you are to follow in Abraham’s footsteps, you, too, must forsake all and live in the land of spiritual promise, separated unto God, with nothing but His Word to depend on. For this you will need a deep and clear insight that the God who is working in you is the Almighty who works according to “the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe” (Ephesians 1:19).
Do not think that it is easy to live the life of faith. It requires a life of abiding in His presence all day long. Bow before God in humble worship, until He speaks to you: “I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect. And I will…multiply thee exceedingly.” When Abraham heard this, he “fell on his face: and God talked with him” (Genesis 17:3). In this lies the secret of the power to trust God for everything that He promises.
We can only go out like Abraham when we are called to a life of true consecration to God. Walk in the footsteps of Abraham. Hide deep in your heart the testimony of God’s Word: “He…was strong in faith…being fully persuaded that, what [God] had promised, He was able also to perform” (Romans 4:20–21).