xviii. 17.]
Mutual trust is at the root of all friendship. Where there is a lack of
mutual confidence in the home life or in commercial life it spells ruin.
The great question for each one in life is, What is my relation to God? Is
it trusting God, or is it doubting God?
"Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness."
[Footnote: Rom. iv. 3.] What is righteousness? It means to be right with
God, and the moment we trust God's Word we are made righteous, and we
become righteous.
We read in Acts that after their first missionary tour. Paul and Barnabas
reported in detail all that God had done, and how He had opened the door
of faith unto the Gentiles. [Footnote: Acts xiv. 27.] So faith is the
gate of life by which the Gentiles were entering in.
Here was a new fact proving that faith was the gate of the Lord into which
the righteous should enter; [Footnote: Ps. cxviii. 20.] righteous
_because_ believing. Faith is the door by which God comes into our hearts.
Faith is only the door, nothing in itself, but it is called "precious
faith" because of all the life and joy and riches of grace and glory which
it lets in.
Abraham is not only presented to us in the Word of God as the Friend of
God, but also as a pattern for all believers, and we are told to take him
as our model, "to walk in his steps," to trust God and to find in God's
wondrous friendship all that he found. God has been teaching us ever
since, through the simplicity of the faith of this man.
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