Believing the promise

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who received the promise was offering up his only begotten son.                                                                 Heb. 11.17

This is amazing! Abraham was promised a son by God. In faith Abraham believed for his son, and he held on. His faith led him beyond all possible hope in the natural. But his faith was not in the natural. Abraham had faith, he believed, in a supernatural God. And Abraham’s God could do anything. Indeed, God gave Abraham his son, at a time when both he and Sarah were well beyond the age of procreating.   

Then a most catastrophic happening occurred. God asked Abraham for his son back! He asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. How can the seed of Abraham possibly be germinated if the sower (the son) is removed? This is, indeed, a most remarkable turn of events. Then, believe it or not, an even more remarkable thing happens – Abraham actually proceeds to obey God and to give up his son. What is going on? 

I have thought often of Abraham’s predicament in being asked to surrender his son. I have translated the situation into my own life. How would I feel if God asked me to give up my precious daughter? O, the agony of merely thinking about it. Could I do it? Would I do it?

This is an extremely difficult scenario in which to imagine oneself. I have thought about it, felt the pangs of love for my daughter tug at every part of my heart, and wondered!

Yet, in reading this passage again today I am aware of another perspective, and one that could cause equal difficulty and turmoil. It is an interpretation that stands adjacent but separate to the fact that Abraham was asked to give up his beloved son.

God had made Abraham a promise. It was a promise that simply could not be fulfilled in the natural. If this promise was to be believed, it required the utmost faith. Abraham demonstrated faith. Despite the totality of negative evidence that confronted him, Abraham had faith to believe that God would honour His promise. And, in time, a long time in fact, God did fulfil His promise. The son was born.

The son grew, and Abraham grew to love him more and more. Isaac was the realisation of his greatest dream. More importantly, he was the fulfilment of God’s promise.

Then God asks for him back. But what about the promise?“You promised, Lord. You said, and You did. But now You’re undoing. I’m losing what You promised me.” Abraham could well have responded to God in this way. He did not. He chose rather to obey God and he did so believing that God would still restore his son.

O Abraham, I feel so small when I read, and more so realise, the potency of your mighty faith. To believe for the promise required giant faith. But to see the promise threatened and still believe for it, creates in my mind a measure of faith that makes me gasp. I am struck by the enormity of faith. I am envious, yes, I admit it. O, that I might know such a faith!

Lord God,

I receive today a new perspective on what it is to be of the seed of Abraham. I declare, with gravity and humility, the privilege it is for me to come from such beginnings.

I want to live by faith. I want to walk in faith. Yes, I do want faith like these heroes I read of in this wonderful letter to the Hebrews. I want their kind of faith, in full measure.

I want to please You, Lord. I know that I cannot do this without faith (Heb. 11.6) I want to please You, and I want the faith, great faith, to do so.

Hear this cry of my heart. May it touch Your heart, and move You to release more faith into me. I ask this in Jesus’ name.                       Amen.

Grace

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."           2 Cor. 12.5                                                                                                                        

With these words, God makes it abundantly clear to me that His grace is all I need – nothing more is necessary! I need to do nothing other than open myself up to His will, to be willing to let Him have His way in me. This has been my ardent desire for some time now.

I have heard grace described as: the overflowing favour of God. I believe, with the words of God quoted above, that He is inviting me to live, fully and permanently, in His overflowing favour. He tells me clearly that His grace is sufficient for me. What does this mean if not that I need nothing else? As I look to Him, and as I give myself, willingly and freely to Him, so He will provide for me, He will lead and guide me, He will protect, equip and enable me and, I dare to think, He will lead me into the fulfilment of His will for me. 

Today I begin the next phase of chemotherapy treatment. Yesterday I discovered that it is likely to be more regular than I had previously envisaged. I have been feeling amazingly well and positive to this time. Of course, I have experienced some challenges and minor irritations (such as sleep upheaval and deprivation) but my chief attitude and response has been one of optimism and a positive outlook. I am not able to seriously consider cancer in me. My thinking is, rather, that there was a tumour in my brain, but it is no longer there! It is gone – and I can get on with living. 

The coming treatment is a reminder to me that more work is necessary before I can consider myself to be disease-free. 

So, what can I do? I can turn to God, and open myself completely to Him. I can expect, and receive, His grace, His overflowing favour. And I can be satisfied that this is all I need.

Lord, Mighty God,

I feel strong. I open myself to the wonder and power of Your grace. I know this is all I need. I rest in Your grace. I am at peace. I thank You, in love.                        Amen.

Assurance

By faith Abel …                                                                                              Heb. 11.4

By faith Enoch…                                                                                           Heb. 11.5

By faith Noah…                                                                                             Heb. 11.7

Hebrews chapter 11 is the most wonderful writing on faith. In it, we read of the great men and women of faith and their demonstration of faith – assurance of things hoped for and a certainty, a conviction, of things unseen. 

We see faith in action.

In Abel we see how faith makes death the path to life.

In Enoch we see how faith conquers death.

In Noah we see how faith saves others from death by the work it does for them.

Faith sees what the world cannot see. Faith sees everything, the future too, in the light of God.

I live in the present. I want to live in the present, but I want to do so with faith. I want an assurance of the future and the unseen. I want to see what the world cannot see. I want to see everything – past, present and future – in the light of God.

Lord God,

I thank You for this writing and for the wonderful examples and encouragement of these godly men.

I do not aspire to be Abel. I dare not aspire to be Enoch (though I would very much like to know the experiences he knew). I cannot aspire to be Noah. Nor, indeed, do I need to! For I am me. You created me to be me, and not Abel, Enoch or Noah.  

I thank You that You created me, me! I like me. I enjoy me. But I am not satisfied with me. I want to be more like Jesus. Like Jesus, I want to live my life totally to the fulfilment of Your will. I want to see everything in the light of God. I want to live in faith – filled with faith. Would You help me, Lord? I’m asking in the precious name of Jesus.                   Amen.

The life I live

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.    Gal. 2.20

Jesus invited me into relationship with Himself, and I responded in the affirmative. I allow Him to draw me to the Father. He says, “Come, follow me.” I give myself to this, and I seek – as best I am able – to live in the Father’s will.

Today, perhaps as much as any time in history – and certainly more than in my earlier years – we live in the age of the ego! Individuals are out for themselves, seeking to satisfy their own wants and desires, and often not giving the slightest thought to others and their needs. 

This is not God’s way! God demands that we put Him first: You shall have no other gods before me. (Exod. 20.3) How often, indeed, do we see others, even Christians, put another “god” (wealth, prosperity, health, popularity) before the Lord God.

This is not what Jesus intended when He said, “Come, follow me.”Jesus lived the whole of His earthly life in compliance with the Father’s will for Him (Luke 22.42). He was obedient to the point of death (Phil. 2.8). He spoke only what the Father would have Him speak (John 12.49.50).

Jesus gave us the perfect example (John 13.15).

He issues us with a new command that we are to follow: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13.34)He expects us to do this.

There are times when I experience great difficulty in following Jesus. I cannot love as He would have me love. At these times, I cry out to Him, “Lord, I find it difficult to love this person. Please show me them as You see them.” He does so, and it changes me.

Jesus is ever there to help me, and lead me in that change that makes me, truly, a child of God.

Loving God,

I give myself wholeheartedly to being Your child. I seek to follow Jesus into the fullness of Your will for me. Lead me through this day, and every day, to Your praise and glory.          Amen.                                                                                                                                   

Impossible?

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.                                          Heb. 11.6

I was created to please God. Through Adam I was denied the opportunity to be directly pleasing to Him. Jesus has restored me. It is none of my doing. It is fully the atoning work of God given freely for me.

Do I believe this? Most certainly I do. I have faith, abundant faith to believe for this. I believe God is. I must believe that I can please Him. I need faith for this. I need faith to also believe that God will reward me as I seek Him. No, surely I know this. I know this for I have indeed experienced it. As I have sought God, I have been rewarded. He has drawn me close; He has spoken to me; and He has shared wonderful promises and insights with me.

Do I have faith? Yes, I do, but I want more!

Lord God,

I thank You for the faith that I have, for I believe it came from You. I thank You for it but I ask for more.

I want to please You. My desire is to be totally pleasing to You in all that I am and in all that I do.

I want to come to You and live with You. I pray earnestly and sincerely that I might work in the closest cooperation with You.

Yes, Lord, I want to live with You and work with You, and relax with You and rest with You.

Thank You for my faith,          

            please increase it, 

in Jesus’ name I ask.               Amen.

Boldness

For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.                                                                                         Heb. 10.36

There are many temptations that seek to come against the Christian and lead him away from the promise. The world is in constant conflict with the work of salvation and sanctification in the Christian. And the world’s way is at hand! It is tangible and visible. It is beguiling and enticing. It is natural, easy and unceasing. And the Christian can so readily fall.

Yet the Christian has taste of the other, an infinitely more worthy way. This is the way of eternal life. This way will satisfy forever. But this way is not as obvious as the worldly way. This is where we need faith. This is where we need patience. In our faith, we exercise boldness! 

We have already been exhorted to hold fast to our boldness for Christ’s faithfulness (3.6). We are encouraged to draw near with boldness to the throne of grace (4.16), and we are assured of boldness to enter into the Holiest through the blood of Jesus (10.19). 

All of these things we know yet, somehow, they do not stand up overwhelmingly against the enticements of the world. This is when we need faith. We need faith to enable us to live in the future. We need faith to enable us to live, right now, in the power of eternity. We need faith to enable us to live in the power of Him who is Eternity.

Lord,

The understanding of my heart and my mind is quite clear today. I am in need of endurance, of faith and of patience to live the life that I want to live, a life committed to doing Your will, a life devoted to doing Your will.

I believe I must stand in boldness, and I do. I stand in the boldness that my Lord Jesus has given me. I stand in the boldness of His faithfulness. I draw near with boldness to the throne of grace. I enter with boldnessinto the Holiest place, the presence of Almighty God.

My desire is to live in the Holiest place. I have faith for this, yet I know I need more faith. I need faith to know I can be strong against every temptation. I need faith to hold on to the assurance of my salvation. And I seek faith to believe that signs and wonders and miracles will manifest in my ministry through the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

With boldness I ask for patience, and all the enabling that patience requires. Let me resist and overcome. Let me wait, expectantly, upon the good things of the Lord and upon the promise. Let me live, daily, in the fullness of the will of God.

I love you, Great One, and I want to serve You with all of my being. Help me do so, in Jesus’ name I ask.              Amen. 

Sin?

It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands  of the living God.                                Heb. 10.31

We are saved by the blood of Jesus. His sacrifice was no small work. God is gracious and will forgive the sins of the truly repentant and receive them back in relationship.

Yet we must beware of wilful sin. There is nowhere a clear definition of this, therefore our preferred action is to beware of all sin; this will surely keep us from wilful sin.

For the wilful sinner there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but, in its place, a “terrifying expectation of judgment”.

Let me be truly aware of the snare of sin and let me be ever vigilant and alert against it. But there is more. What of my worldly brothers and sisters who perpetuate sin without thought to the redemption hard won for them and, I’m sure, quite without a real awareness or acceptance of the judgment that awaits them?

For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”(Heb. 10.30)

Where grace abounds, justice will surely also be greater.

I want to help those who live, unwittingly perhaps, in the ways of the world and out of the Way of God. I don’t feel confident in myself. This is good. I can look to God and ask Him to lead me, to guide me, to work through me.

Lord God,

I ask You to help me to understand the trap of sin and to guard myself against it. I surrender completely to you. Lead me, by Your Holy Spirit.

I ask You also to equip and enable me to reach the lost, to touch them for You, to be able to give them the message clearly and with a relevance to their lives. I ask You to help me to lead them to You. I ask these things in Jesus’ name.                    Amen.