Faith Is Believing and Obeying God’s Word - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Hebrews 11:8

Faith Is Believing and Obeying God's Word
Here we see faith in the personal experiences of life. God called Abraham out from a land of idol worshipers, from his own near relatives. It was no light step to take. He was a man of means and prominence, but when God called, it was a voice that could not be ignored.

We are not told here with what hesitation he at first acted, for he went only as far as Haran, his father accompanying him, and did not go on until his father died. Such weaknesses of the flesh are passed over in this chapter that deals with faith. Faith did lead Abraham on, and, although not knowing where God was leading him, he went. This is faith in personal life. Can God be fully trusted, or not? This is a matter for faith to decide. If the Word of God tells me the path to take, then let me take it without question. Whatever the difficulties, God is more than sufficient. If only mere religious feeling prompts me, however, that is a useless substitute for the clearly declared Word of God. All personal preferences and feelings must utterly give way before this tribunal of absolute truth and authority.

Faith connects with obedience. If I have no honest spirit of obedience to the Word of God, then it is mere hypocrisy to boast of having faith in God. When God speaks, faith obeys, for faith is that which trusts God absolutely in preference over every other confidence. It trusts His Word to show the only true and safe course for the believer. We shall obey in proportion as we actually trust the Word of God. Faith does not first fearfully inquire what could result from this step of obedience; the results are safely left with God. Abraham did not investigate first to find out all about the land God was sending him to. He simply obeyed.

L. M. Grant