Today's Worship: A friend of God.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in James 2:22-24,

 

"You see that his [Abraham's] faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,' and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone."

 

Here in this passage, James uses Abraham, and later Rahab, as folks who exhibited the kind of faith God is looking for when he considers who will enter into his family, his kingdom. God has extended his invitation to all men and James is driving the point here that the kind of faith God looks for in people when they are confronted with the gospel is the kind that leads to action. If I say I have faith, yet fail to demonstrate it in my thoughts, words and actions, it won't be the kind of faith that will get me anywhere with God.

 

Abraham did get somewhere with God. He was a man of faith and his faith was manifested in his actions, what he did. James quotes Genesis 15:6 where we are told Abraham was credited with righteousness in his account before God. Righteousness is that standing with God where we are acceptable and embraced by him. It is the very standing before God that is required if we are to have any connection with God and be accepted into his family in the resurrection. What I marvel at is that Abraham was called "God's friend"!

 

Of all the folks on planet earth, God found that Abraham demonstrated in his life the faith he is looking for in people. The Scriptures are careful to point out that Abraham was not a perfect man. Indeed, we have accounts provided where Abraham was found to be devious and deceitful at times, Genesis 12:10-20 and Genesis 20:1-18.

 

We find in the life of Abraham the kind of faith God looks for in us. We also discover that faith does not make us perfect, Abraham wasn't and we are not either. However, Abraham was called "God's friend", James tells us. That tells me a lot about God.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com