God wants us to trust Him. He wants us to believe that He is coming through for us. He wants us to trust Him to come through for us every time.
Yet ... the temptation for us to do something, to fall into our own efforts, to wonder if He will come through for us is so strong.
Isn't it, though?
Remember that it was 20 years before God blessed Abraham and Sarah with the child of promise. It was many years after that before God told Abraham to offer up his son Isaac. Abraham had experienced so much of God's goodness, He had seen God come through for him every time.
There was nothing holding him back from offering up Isaac as a sacrifice.
Why?
The writer of Hebrews answers that question perfectly:
"17By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure." (Hebrews 11:17-19)
The beginning of this powerful chapter, from which this account is drawn, begins:
"1And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am." (Genesis 22:1)
The word "Tempt" is a little off. The better term would be "test" or "try", the same way that a metal smith tests gold and silver, to ensure that it is pure.
God was not setting up Abraham to see whether he would succeed or fail. God put him through this trial to show the type of faith that our beloved Father of Faith Abraham really had!
Abraham so trusted God, that he foresaw God bringing his son back from the dead. Abraham both knew and believed that God loved him, loved Isaac, and that he would bring him back to life. He had to, since through Isaac all the nations of the world would be blessed. "From whence he received him in a figure," Abraham received indeed. Isaac served as the type and shadow of Jesus, God's only Begotten Son, who would be delivered up for all the sins of the world, who would be brought back from the dead, and through Him indeed all the nations of the world would be blessed.
To this day, the world is blessed, for those who believe on Christ Jesus!
So, the trials that I have faced manifold times in my life ... I must say that I have had my fair share of them. God wants me to see Him not just as the only source, but the best source out there. In Mark 4, the disciples could cry out to no one but the Lord Jesus, who was soundly asleep on a pillow while the winds raged and the waters flooded their boat.
Think about it -- if Jesus is sound asleep, what did they really have to worry about? He was asleep, but the disciples feared the worst. Worst yet, they did not know who was in the boat with them. "And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?" (Mark 4:38)
They saw Him as Master, not Savior.
They saw Him as uncaring, but He has never ceased caring for us.
They thought they were perishing, when The Way, the Truth, and the Life was in the boat with them!
Yet even despite all of this, Jesus rose up and quieted the storms with one word. They still feared, though:
"41And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mark 4:41)
As for me, I want to get to that point where I never doubt His love for me. Ever.
I welcome every trial, for each trial grants me the grace to see that He is not only on my side, but He is prepared to save me, succor me, and secure me from the worst out there. I want to know Him better than before. I am so glad to that He loves me as much as all that and then some. This is great!
Trials are all about trusting God more, so that He can grace us with more, since we will rely less on our own flesh and more on His Love, His Grace, His Goodness.
What is new to me, though, is that this sense of "being stuck", of being stuck between the Pharaoh and the Deep Red Sea is very much part of the Christian life, the life that Jesus gives to us:
"In him was life; and the life was the light of men." (John 1:4)
We should not fear unspeakable hardships. The more dire the situation, the more that we can rest assured that He will rush in to help us.
I look back over my life, and there were many "last minute saves". Sometimes it seems that there were simply too many, as though there was something wrong with me. Was I making mistakes? Did I somehow miss what God was trying to do? What was He saying? What was He doing? Where did I go wrong? Did I do anything right?
At the end of it all, it became crystal clear to -- and has only become clearer since then -- that He has been watching with me, working with me, working in me, and working all around me to be guided by His grace.
The trials are wonderful, that I may trust Him more, and there is such joy in that, to see Him come through for me.
AMEN!
No comments:
Post a Comment