Devotional

Abraham: Faith’s Prototype Personality

Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. -Genesis 12:7

Above all other traits, kingdom people are people of worship. This means you will find them assembling with fellow believers in worship on the Lord’s Day (Heb. 10:25). With and beyond that, you will also find their daily lives marked by a trail of altars, as Abraham’s life was.

To study Abraham as the prototype personality who “fathered” a pathway of faith ages ago (Rom. 4:25) is to discover a life punctuated by altars—times of life-transforming encounters with God (See Genesis 12:7, 8; 13:4, 18; 15:1–18; 21:1–19.). From episodes wherein he seals God’s promises to him by building and bowing at an altar of worship, to instances where he sacrifices his all before God as an expression of his utmost trust, the prototype pathway for a kingdom walk in worship is mapped with clarity.

God’s high calling to all of us is according to the same promise He made to Abraham: “I will bless you, and you will be a blessing.” As staggering as that prospect may seem, that God could make us such a blessing, He is able to fulfill it as we walk before Him in “altar-building” worship.

Genesis