Faith Alive

Abraham reckoned that God was able to raise Isaac from death—and, so to speak, Abraham did receive Isaac back from death.  ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11:19‬ ‭GNT‬‬

We each have a different level of faith. Some of us have faith because we believe in God. We believe he exists. We believe that when we choose Jesus, we will have eternal life. We believe that heaven is going to be way better than here. We have all sorts of doctrinal beliefs and we have faith in those. 

Sometimes though, I think that is where our faith ends. It’s intellectual. It’s not alive. 

When God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, do you think he had this kind of conversation with himself? What, you don’t have conversations with yourself?  😊

Abraham: God asked me to sacrifice Isaac. This can’t be right. Why would he wait all those years to give me this promise that he clearly said would be the fulfillment of his promise to me to be the father of many nations only to take it away? Why would he give me a son to take care of, to grow close to, to love only to have me kill him? This does’t sound right. 

I imagine that Abraham prayed a lot about this and wrestled with God. He finally came to this.

Abraham: God, I trust you. I’ve seen your hand in my life over and over again. I will do this thing that you are asking me to do. I don’t want to, but Lord, I know who you are. I know you can raise Isaac from the dead. I know you will fulfill the promise you made to me because you can’t do anything else. It goes against who You are.

You see, Abraham knew God. He knew who he was and that caused him to live out his faith. Abraham’s faith was not just intellectual. It was lived out. He walked it day by day trusting in God. 

How is your faith? If God called you to do something that was outside the realm of your comprehension, would you do it? Will you know in your heart that God will take care of it? And most importantly, will you walk the walk of faith and step out following God’s lead?

I Know You!

But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Matthew 7:23 (NLT)

There are a few places in the New Testament that Jesus says things like today’s text. Sometimes like in the parable of the 10 virgins, they weren’t ready and he said it. There are other places where people say “But, we did this for you and that for you.” Almost like they deserve to go to heaven for their actions.

When I read these texts and hear Jesus say “Go away, I never knew you.” I shudder. It makes me determined to “know him.” And in my humanness, I then try to do more because that is how I am wired. I’m thinking I am not alone in this line of thinking.

Don’t get me wrong. The Bible is full of things we are supposed to do. We are supposed to go, serve and love. There are a lot more. Being a Christian is not an idle task. It’s a way of life that is full of activity. What gets us hung up is the motive behind the activity. We cannot earn our way to heaven. That is a done deal sealed with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What God wants is a relationship with us.

What does that look like? It looks like communicating with him in prayer. It looks like spending time in the Bible and listening for his voice. It looks like lingering in his presence. It also looks like doing (obedience). Obedience to what he is telling you to do. And, it looks like surrender. Letting go of our stuff to have more of his stuff.

This weekend, I started looking at this text in a slightly different way. I imagined coming up to Jesus and having him point at me and say in a really loud voice “I KNOW YOU!” I imagined running to him and jumping into his arms and sobbing with joy at the sound of those three words.

Can you imagine it? There would be nothing better. Ever.

I Know You!

Job answered:

“I’m speechless, in awe—words fail me.
    I should never have opened my mouth!
I’ve talked too much, way too much.
    I’m ready to shut up and listen.”Job 40:3-5 (MSG)

A couple of years ago, I was waiting on God to show up and solve a problem in my life. I had been praying and the answers to the prayers always seemed to say “Wait.” In the midst of the waiting, things took a turn for the worse. We received bad news that was going to take the problem to a deeper level of distress.

I looked up at God and said “What are you doing? Don’t you understand that this makes things worse?” I wish I could say I stopped there but I yelled at God. I cried and I whined. After I finished my little tantrum, I asked God for help.

As time went on, it became clear that the ‘turn for the worse’ actually was exactly what needed to happen for things to work out. What seemed like a trauma at the time, was really a blessing in disguise.

I think back on those moments when I was yelling at God and not trusting him and I want to remember. I want to remember it not because I don’t think God can handle it and forgive me (after all, at the end of the book of Job God tells Job’s friends that Job was the only one who represented him accurately) but I want to remember it so I remember to trust him.

I want to remember that even if it doesn’t look like I think it should, God’s plans are never wrong. He never forgets us and he never lets us down.

All of Job’s friends told Job who they thought God was. Job only truly saw who he was when God himself stepped in. So often we look at our circumstances or listen to what others say about God and make a decision about who God is. We don’t experience him for ourselves.

In Job 42:5 Job says “I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.” The only way to really know God is to find him for ourselves. In that experience, he will be real to us and nothing, not our circumstances or other’s opinions will be able to change our minds.