I was eight or nine when I first read that verse, in a Kentucky Sunday school classroom, where one of our ladies was teaching us kids the difference between Old Testament and New Testament saints. Abram was already separated by more than 2000 years from when Jesus was likely born in a cave, so it came as a surprise to me that somehow Abram could have his sins forgiven so long before the Lord actually died on the cross.

Before that morning, I'd never heard about the grace applied to all believers by the blood of Jesus. In fact, though I had gotten saved as a five year old in Vacation Bible School, I had no understanding of the grace under which I had accepted Christ as my Savior. In fact, it was rather puzzling to a child that God could at once accept the patriarch's belief, given there was nothing but sacrifices of various types to accompany his actions. You see, Abram was not the shepherd with a white robe. The fact is, the Bible records that God spoke to Abram on only four instances in his entire life, following which shocking revelation, Abram did not have a copy of one book from the entire Bible!

On the face of it, Abram's life not only seems to have a near vacuum in which he lived, spiritually, but he doesn't even seem to display a faith in scripture which would provide an example. The one time he obeyed God explicitly was when he took Isaac to the mountains to sacrifice him on a pile of stones. He disobeyed God when Sarah spitingly took him to task for a lack of children and strongly suggested he should sleep with Hagar, Sarah's slave. Even when he left the land of Ur in what appears to be Iraq today, he took along his nephew and unbelieving father, both of whom were to prove distracting down the road. Worse, he betrayed Sarah, apparently a mideastern beauty, into the hands of two different kings, calling her his sister, not even courageous enough to defend her as his wife! The man is a coward! It isn't surprising then that Sarah mocks him later when Hagar became arrogant toward her!

But....he believed God. Those three words provide the evidence 6000 years later, that amid the sins of the weak kneed desert shepherd, God forgave him. Not only did God forgive him, but he made him the father of all following Jews throughout history!

If God could forgive a fellow on the backside of an empty desert who made so many stupid mistakes, can He not also forgive our sins and call us righteous? As I write these words, I see my own youth misspent in anger and pride, hating my parents, yet God forgave me of that bitterness. You see the infinite love and mercy of our Father in heaven?

Lord, we are weak. We are fooled daily by the devil's lies. We are so fooled that we sometimes don't even believe Your word! Help us to reject the devious ways of Satan and accept Your forgiveness! Thank You that we can bring our spirits to Your heart for relief from this caustic and lying world, to believe in You, that be imputed to us as righteousness!