Step Out in Faith

A very good morning to you! It is Tuesday morning the 19th of April, the year 2022. This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

If we go straight to James, at the back of the New Testament:

“Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.”

James 2:23

One of the only men in the whole Bible that God looked down from Heaven and He saw that farmer, Abraham, and said, “That man is My friend.” Everybody wants to be God’s friend, even the devil wants to be God’s friend but not many men are called the friend of God. Why was that? It is because Abraham believed God. Abraham obeyed God and that is why He is known as the friend of God. What an amazing thing! Don’t you and I want to be known as the friend of God?

It's because he was a man of faith. Romans 1:17 says the just, the righteous will walk by faith. God is not interested in our efforts. He is not interested even in our good works. He only is concerned about us trusting in Him, why? Because it glorifies His Son, Jesus.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Hebrews 11:1

St Augustine said, “Faith is to believe what you cannot see. But the reward of that faith is to see what you believe.” Now, I can hear someone saying, “How do you access that kind of faith?” It is very simple, it is found in Romans 10:17:

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

That’s right, it is by reading your Bible systematically. By believing the promises of God and then executing them - That’s how you get faith. We have a saying here at Shalom. It goes something like this: You must attempt something that is so big that if it is not of God, it is doomed to fail. Why? Well, if it works, God gets all the glory because people will know that no man could have done it. It’s like planting potatoes in a year when El Nino, the drought, is threatening... I will never forget it, will I? No.

I was at Kings Park Rugby Stadium and I opened my big mouth, once again. “I am going home to plant potatoes with no irrigation.” Why? Because people, the radio stations were telling the rural farmers, not to plant their crops in marginal areas because it wasn’t going to rain. And you know what? God gave us a crop of beautiful potatoes.

Today, step out in faith and believe in the promises of God. He will reward you.
God bless you and goodbye!