Faith that gets God's attention - Part 2

Continued from previous post..

Lesson #7  Faith is not shortsighted.

Gen 15: 6 God appears in a vision and tells Abram, 'I am your shield, your very great reward'. But all Abram can see is God has not given him an heir and that his servant is likely to inherit his wealth. So, God takes him outside and reiterates his promise. Abram believes and his faith makes him righteous before God. God reminds Abram that it was He who had orchestrated his move out from Ur. God also tells Abram that his descendants will suffer for 400 years in slavery but they will be saved at the right time. Abram will not witness their struggle as it will not happen in his lifetime. God seals His promise to Abram with a covenant.

God's faithfulness is forever. Abram was limiting God to the present. He forgot God had been working in his past and would continue to work in the future. 'For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day'- 2 Tim 1:12.

Lesson #8  Faith waits patiently.

Gen 16:3 Ten years have passed since Abram moved to Canaan. There is no sign of the promised heir. Sarai is growing impatient. She blames God for her barrenness. Later she takes Abram to task when her maid looks down on her for not being able to give him an heir. Sarai mistreats her badly, causing her to run away.

We can choose how to respond when God delays His answer. Perseverance and patience produce character but self-pity produces bitterness and anger. 'The testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.' - James 1:3-4.

Lesson #9  Faith doesn't take matters into its own hands.

Gen 16: 1-6 Sarai reasons that since she is unable to conceive, God must not want her to bear Abram a son. So she decides to build her family through another woman. She proposes Hagar, her Egyptian maid. Abram agrees and Hagar soon conceives and bears him a son, Ishmael.

We can rationalize and justify our actions but God's ways are not our ways. 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts' - Isaiah 55:7-9.

Lesson #10  Faith is not presumptuous.

Gen 17 God appears to Abram after a long period of silence. Ishmael is now 13. Abram pleads with God to accept Ishmael and to perpetuate the promise through him. But God will not change His plan to accommodate Ishmael. Instead God changes Abram's name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah. He tells them Isaac, the true heir of promise, will be born the following year.

                          

Presumption is expecting God to bless our willful actions. The bible calls it sin. God will not conform to our will, rather we must conform to God's will. Don't try to change God but allow God to change you. 'Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression' - Psalm 19:13; 'Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him' - I John5:14-15. 

   

Lesson #11  Faith knows God CANNOT fail.

Gen 20 Abraham repeats his mistake in Egypt this time with King Abimelech of Gerar. God warns the king in a dream and rescues Sarah. Abraham and Sarah slip up yet again even though though they are so close to seeing the fulfillment of God's promise. God is committed to keeping His word despite Abraham’s apparent weakness.

Man may fail but God never fails. What He starts, He finishes. It is God who pioneers, perfects and completes our faith in Him. 'The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands’ – Psalm 138:8; ‘Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ’ – Phil 1:6; 'Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith' - Heb 12:2.

Lesson #12  Faith proves itself in obedience.

Gen 22 In the final test, God asks Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. Abraham does not hesitate. He takes supplies, loads them on a donkey and together with his son and two servants sets out to the sacrificial site. When Isaac innocently asks, "We have the fire and the wood but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?", Abraham simply replies that God will provide. He builds an altar, lays the wood and after binding Isaac places him on the altar. 

Often it seems that God is a sadist, demanding everything of you until you are left with nothing. Abraham gave up his home and native land to go where God was leading him. He and Sarah made the journey alone, leaving behind family and friends; even his closest family member, Lot, bailed out halfway. He wandered the land as a nomad making his home in tents in an occupied country. Not only that, he waited 25 years for Isaac to be born. Abraham suffered the pain and humiliation of one who had nothing to show for all the years spent waiting for his destiny. And now that he had finally attained the promise, the God he's given up everything for is demanding he offer his son as a sacrifice? No one would have blamed Abraham if he had thrown in the towel and cried, "Enough is enough!"  But Abraham knows who God is.   

'The Maker of Heaven and Earth is my God. My God keeps His promise. My God does not lie. My God judges rightly. My God protects me from harm and rescues me from danger. My God supplies all my needs. My God knows my weakness. My God understands my pain and all that I have suffered. My God is faithful even when I fail Him. Nothing is impossible with my God. If need be, my God is able to raise my son back to life after I have sacrificed him. I will not doubt. I will not fear. I will not question. I will simply trust and obey'

Just as he stretches out his hand to slay him with his knife, God calls Abraham, “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. ” God is proud of Abraham's faith! And indeed not only does God give Isaac back to Abraham but He also seals the deal with a personal oath. 'I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me. - Genesis 22:16ff

The test of a man's faith is his obedience to God.

All this took place some 4,000 years before God sent His only Son, Jesus, to earth. At the appointed time, Jesus in obedience to His Father’s Will, willingly went to the cross. He paid the ultimate price for sin with His sinless blood which cleanses every sinner who comes to Him by faith. Faith not only reconciles us to God but makes it possible to know Him and experience His Presence in our lives in a real and tangible way.

Abraham’s story is an amazing story of how one man believed God and became a hero of faith, the founder of the Jewish nation, and most importantly a friend of God. Today you and I are bearers of Abraham’s promise; we receive it by faith just as Abraham inherited the promises of God by faith!

It is important to remember that faith is not a destination but it is a journey. Won't you put your hand in His and with all the trust and simplicity of a child begin your own journey with Him?