Friday Night Thoughts

Was busy early this afternoon so instead of FAT we have FNT (pronounced fuh-nt).

Apparently this week is faith week for me. It started when I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine. Somewhere along the way they said something obvious. "God required Isaac from Abraham..." They continued with how that thought was pertinent in their life but that thought lingered in the back of my head. Why exactly would God require Isaac from Abraham anyway? Is God sadistic? Wouldn't it be unthinkable to require the most precious thing in your most faithful servant's life?

Enter Andy Stanley and Beth Moore. As I continued to dwell upon this little thought in my mind, the more I remembered what I had learned from reading their books. Thought after thought came flooding into my mind as I considered things from Abraham's point of view. And what I've found is, well, beautiful.

Now, the sunday school answer would be "God is just testing your faith." And that statement would be 100% correct. Scripture would even agree with that assessment. The writer of Hebrews states that without faith it's impossible to please God. Said writer even goes to the extent of listing a "hall of fame" for faithful people late in the book. Again, these are all dead-on in terms of what God was testing. However, the challenging (and frightening) thing about it is that it dives much deeper than staying only with faith.

The crux of the matter is the relationship with God.
Let me explain.

Faith is important in that when it's all said and done, you will be forced with a decision; do you believe God is who He says He is and do you believe God can do what He says He can do. It's easy to say yes to those questions when you're on the outside looking in, but if you were in Abraham's shoes would you truly be able to say the same? If you were in Moses' shoes, would you seriously be able to say yes (knowing full and well that yes is a likely ticket to death?). I'm not trying to be morbid, but those questions bear much more significance when you're in the middle of the turbulent waves of the storms of life.

Yet the bigger, overarching issue here is the relationship. None of that faith that God is testing will be present if we don't have a reason to believe God. We won't have a reason to believe God if we don't have a relationship with God.

Think about it.

Abraham could have asked thousands of questions the during the whole process of sacrificing Isaac.
"Why are you doing this? I thought you gave Isaac to me to bless me?"
"This doesn't make any sense to me...don't you hear me praying to you?"
"I know that you're pleased with faith...but why this?"
"This is so hard for me...why? just why?"
You can probably think of a few more. Note that all of those questions are 100% valid and 100% real too.

But what do you think God is more interested in...answering all those questions or having a relationship with Abraham?

God could've answered every legitimate question Abraham had concerning Isaac, but do you think that would REALLY make Abraham love him anymore? If God told Job precisely why he lost everything he had, do you think Job's natural response would be, "Really? I just love you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much for taking everything in my life! You are teh ROXORZ God!!"

No. Don't be dumb.

God is pleased with faith because it's one of the key indicators of a growing relationship.

What more, God gives endless reasons to believe Him. It starts what He's already done for you, continues with what He keeps doing for you, and builds with what He will do for you. That's why God is so huge on reminding the Isrealites of their past.
"Remember how you got delivered from Egypt? Yeah that was Me."
"Red Sea splitting? Me again."
"Persians being crushed despite you being grossly outnumbered? Oh that's right! Me!"

The examples should start to flow when you pause and reflect in your life. Keep it at the forefront the next time your faith is tested.