“… “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you…””
Genesis 17:1-4
God once again begins a conversation with Abram. Not more than a moment after God tells Abram to walk before Him, Abram falls on his face. In a sense the same is true for all of us, God desires us to be “Holy as He is Holy” (Lev. 11:44, 45 1 Peter 1:16) and calls us to “walk worthy of the gospel we have received” (Eph.4), but the fact is we all fall short of His glory and fall on our faces.
When I was younger in my walk with the Lord this used to bum me out big time. Every time I heard God’s voice speaking love and life towards me, I would be tugged down by the enemy’s lying voice. I would hear him telling me, “You’re a mess up.” Failure after failure would be like another weight that I would carry and after a while I felt as though this whole Christian life was too heavy for me to handle. I would have thoughts like:
I could never measure up.
I could never be righteous enough.
I could never be holy as God wants me to be holy.
God went through all that trouble on the cross to save me but I just keep blowing it and letting Him down.
The wonderful truth is that God’s voice is never one of “accusation” but of “affirmation”.
As Abram fell God didn’t scold him, God came near and said, “As for me, behold, My covenant is with you” in other words God told Abram, “You’re the guy I want to bless, even though you don’t have it all together, I want to bless you.” God’s covenant stood firm, the only thing that could separate Abram from the blessings was if he chose not to walk with the Lord. Had Abram said, “This all sounds good… but I’m not interested.” God would have let him go. But like Noah, and Enoch before him, Abram now had the opportunity to walk with God…and he did.
The same choice is in front of us daily. God simply asks if we will choose to agree, believe, and obey we too will see our blessings “multiply exceedingly”.
