The Testing of Your Faith

Are you reluctant to obey the Lord in an area of your life? Obedience is a key factor with the Lord. It may be something hard or scary, but in the end, disobedience causes you to lose out on blessings from the Lord.

The Testing of Your Faith

I’ve been reading Genesis for the past week. The life of Abraham and his descendants amaze me. God used these imperfect people as tools for His plan to send Jesus. The promises God made to some of these important figures, he kept, even when they royally messed up.

Abraham’s life is full of steps of faith. He was told to leave his family and his homeland – everything he knew. (Genesis 12) Abraham didn’t know where he was going nor did he know for how long they would travel, but he went.

Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason— a life of knowing Him who calls us to go. – Oswald Chambers

The promise of a future generation was made to Abraham from the very beginning. When the years began to pass, Abraham listened to Sara’s words of having a son with the maid, Hagar. The son from this union was not the promised one from God.

God promised Abraham to be the father of many nations. (Genesis 17:4-8)
The promise of a son even in their old age. (Genesis 17:15-19; Genesis 18:10-12)
While Sara’s laugh at the thought of having a son is most talked about, Abraham laughed as well. (Genesis 17:17)

There was some disbelief even in his heart.

The Testing of Abraham’s Faith

The real test of Abraham’s faith came through Isaac; God told Abraham to take his only son, the son he loved, Isaac, and sacrifice him. While Abraham had Ismael, God didn’t recognize him as the son He promised to Abraham. The Bible doesn’t tell the emotional roller coaster Abraham experienced during this situation, it must have been horrible.

There is one little clue told that he believed what God promised earlier. When the little group of travelers reached their destination, Abraham told his men to wait there and that he and Isaac would go and worship and come again. (Genesis 22:5) No one knows for sure what Abraham believed during this, many have said he believed he would sacrifice Isaac and that God would raise him from the dead. The one thing about this situation that stands out to me is Abraham knew these words were coming from God and not some craziness going through his mind. He knew for a fact it was God who told him to sacrifice Isaac. No matter what he may have thought, Abraham had faith in God.

I’m sure there was shock, fear, and uncertainty going through Abraham’s mind, but he obeyed anyway.

When Abraham built that altar and placed Isaac upon it, I’m sure he remembered the words of a curious boy questioning where the lamb was at. (Genesis 22:7) The remembrance of God’s promise of being the parents of many nations (Genesis 17:5, Genesis 17:16) He fully had faith in God.

Through it all, God knew exactly how far Abraham would go to show his love for Him. Because of Abraham’s faith, God provided a ram for the sacrifice.

The Testing of Faith Brings Strength

When we are called to do something that seems difficult and hard to understand we have to be like Abraham and just do it.

When we don’t obey God, we are denying His omniscience, His omnipotence, and His omnipresence.

When we obey God – we never lose. It may be hard to understand and we don’t like it, but obedience is the key to everything with God.

Our lack of understanding of why God tells us to do something is never an acceptable excuse for not doing it. – Dr. Charles Stanley

I hope the life of Abraham has encouraged you to trust God as much as it has me.

What will it cost you to obey God? What will it cost you disobey God?