Where is Your Faith?

This was crazy.  Abraham could not believe what he was doing.  Trudging up the mountain, sweat pouring down his back and Isaac following behind him.  His mind consumed with anxious thoughts.  He didn’t hear the first few times Isaac asked him, but the boy's question finally penetrated his preoccupied thoughts. 

“Where we going, Dad?”

How could he answer that question?  He really wished that he could understand God.  He had tried to please this unseen God.  From the first day the Voice had spoken to him and called him by name, Abraham had tried to do everything He commanded.  Leave your family and go where I tell you, had been the first thing He said.  No one had understood then and certainly no one will understand now. 

Abraham had been humbled to be chosen by God.  Who was he?  He was no one… but God had chosen him and made him unbelievable promises and showered him with blessings.  The greatest blessing of all was walking up this mountain behind him.  Remembering the reason for this trek brought a fresh wave of tears to Abraham’s eyes.

Isaac, his beloved son, his heir, the fulfillment of the promise, the son of his old age.  He was a miracle.  Who would have ever believed that Abraham, having already lived a century and Sarah at 90 could have a son, but he was learning, with God all things are possible. 

Possible. That’s why he was doing this.   Walking up this mountain, with Isaac following behind him, asking what they were doing, he was trusting that with God all things were possible, like raising his  son from the dead. 

Why?  Why would Jehovah be asking him to do this? He was not like the other gods that Abraham’s family had worshipped in Ur.  He didn’t require human sacrifice.  He was the living God.  He gave life, he didn’t take it, and yet He had demanded Abraham sacrifice his beloved son. 

The troubling thoughts continued to plague Abraham as he ascended the steep slopes of Mt. Moriah.  Usually the beauty surrounding him would calm his soul and remind him of the gracious hand of the Creator, but today nothing could still his thoughts. 

What would he tell Sarah?  He hadn’t said anything, because what do you say?  “Hey, you know the son God promised us, that we waited so long for, uh yeah I’m going to take him up the mountain and sacrifice him.” 

Why God?  Why did you ask this?  A thousand tangled thoughts were colliding in Abraham’s mind, but the one thought that stilled all the others was that God had been so good to him.  He remembered all the times that he had done what God had told him by faith, and all the times that God had rewarded that fledgling seed of faith.  He remembered all the times that he had gotten himself into bad situations and all the times God had rescued him.  He remembered the joy of finding out that Sarah’s dead womb had conceived a child.  He remembered holding Isaac in his arms and laughing with joy, because God had done the impossible.

Remembering calmed his heart.  Even though he didn’t understand why or how, Abraham knew that God was good and that nothing was impossible with him.  He knew that God could be trusted, even with the one thing that Abraham loved most in the world.  He knew that if God told him to do something, somehow it was going to be ok. 

Too soon Abraham and Isaac reached the top of the mountain.  Abraham leaned on his staff to catch his breath and to stall, hoping beyond hope that God would call this whole thing off.  After a few minutes he told Isaac to help him build an alter to perform the sacrifice on. 

“Well, Dad, the fire and wood are here, but where is the Lamb?” Isaac innocently asked.  Looking away across the distant hills, Abraham lifted his eyes to expanse of blue above him and said, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” 

When Abraham could stomach the fear no longer he called Isaac over to him.  Submissively following his father’s instructions, he allowed himself to be bound and placed on the alter.  Abraham couldn’t speak, there were no words for this.  The horrible pit of pain and fear in his stomach were making it hard to breath.  The innocent love looking up at him from his precious son’s eyes was more than a father should have to bear.  GOD WHY????? 

Abraham raised the knife to do what God had told him to do.  This was the moment.  He was going to kill his own son, but as he raised the knife in his hand, He heard his name called out from heaven…  “Abraham, Abraham!” 

“Here I am.”  Abraham replied. 

The Lord said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him.  FOR NOW I KNOW YOU fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.”  At that moment Abraham heard the bleating of a ram, turning around he saw it stuck in the thicket behind him.  Relief, joy, tears all collided in that moment. 

The Lord had provided.  He was good.  He was gracious.  He had made a way.  He had tested Abraham’s greatest fears and although this was the hardest thing Abraham had ever in his life experienced, he felt set free.  He had faced his worst nightmare and with the Lord, he had come through it better than he was before. 

Abraham couldn’t find words to express what was in his heart.  For the first time in Abraham’s life he knew no fear.  God’s perfect love had cast out his fear.  His light had shown in Abraham’s darkness.  He had exposed the lies hidden in the depths of his heart.  The Lord had shown Abraham that there was nothing to fear when you were His.

I have been a Christian for twenty years and just in the past few years has God been exposing how much of my life has been governed by fear instead of faith.  Every time He asks me to take a step I argue and rationalize and try to find another way.  My faith being in what I can see, but God is testing that.  He’s asking me to face my fears.  He’s asking me to step out on unknown waters and do things I don’t think I can do, only to find out that HE has already provided everything I need, once I take the step. 

One day a few men were out on a boat and when an intense storm came out of nowhere.  They were frantic and sure that death was imminent.   They didn’t know what the sleeping guy down below could do, but they knew they had to go wake him up.  “Master, master we’re going to die.”, they frantically cried out. 

Jesus got up and with the authority of a military general He called out to the wind and waves to cease and immediately they calmed.  Then He turned to his disciples and said, “Where is your faith?”

Where is your faith today?  Is it in you?  Is it in your wisdom?  Is it in your circumstances or is it in God?  Is your faith in the sovereign Creator King of the Universe, who with mere words spoke galaxies into existence?  Is your faith in the One who can calm seas, hung the stars in place, and fed 5000 with a few fish and a little bread?  Is your faith in the One who loved you so much that He sent HIS OWN BELOVED SON TO DIE?  Or is your faith in your understanding? 

Where is your faith today?  If God is asking you to do a very hard thing, that you know you can not do, be assured He will provide a way for you to do it.  Be still and know that HE is good, and He is God and He will make a way.  Calm your anxious thoughts today, by remembering who HE is and then take that next step of faith.