The God of Abraham Praise – Fernando Ortega

In the beginning of last year I started a leadership discovery challenge by looking at the skill sets of leaders in the Old Testament. My very first study was Abraham and it took me about three months to finish. He is a fascinating individual. I had to ask myself a number of times – I wonder what I would have done? He experienced moments of critical decision making and they came with grave consequences.  My most precious takeaways involved watching his relationship with God. I had to challenge myself with what I learned from that and to apply some of those relationship traits in my own life.  There are verses in Romans that describes some of this best.

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,  as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.  In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”  He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness^[b] of Sarah’s womb.  No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,  fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.  That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”  But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone,  but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,  who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. – Romans 4:16-25  ESV

If I had to memorize a verse among these that represented Abraham to me most, I would choose…

 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,  fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. – Romans 4:20-21  ESV

 And if I had to memorize a verse among these that represented what God has done for me in Jesus, I would choose…

That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”  But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone,  but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,  who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. – Romans 4:22-25  ESV

Forgiveness is what God has done for me in Christ. It is a gift given to me by God. In Christ my sins are forgiven the moment I turned to Him. His sacrifice on the cross, His burial and His resurrection made me right with God. Now my forgiveness is motivated by and modeled after Jesus’ forgiving me.  All this from the life of Abraham and a little perspective from Romans.