September 26, 2024
He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” (Genesis 22:12)
The great measure of our spiritual life is how far we are willing to trust God.
This was Abraham’s experience. Abraham’s faith was not built overnight. After a long life of walking with God, He came to the ultimate test. God asked him, now over 100 years old, to take the son he’d waited for all his life and sacrifice him on Mt. Moriah (the same mountain, by the way, where God’s son would later be crucified).
Without hesitation now, Abraham loaded the supplies, took his son, and headed up the mountain. On the mountain, he built an altar, bound his son, laid him there, and lifted the knife to sacrifice the single most precious thing in all the world to him.
But the Lord never intended this to be the end result. Abraham’s (and Isaac’s) faith was the end result of this exercise—to show them both that God can always be trusted.
What are the limits of my faith? Where will I stop when God instructs me to take a hard step? To give something sacrificial? To go somewhere unexpected? To do something that seems uncomfortable? To witness boldly? To pray without ceasing? To admit my sin and clear my conscience humbly? To get up early and stay up late for His sake? To even suffer so that His life and sufficiency in me can be more brilliantly displayed for all the world to see?
Where will I believe and then no more? Or am I willing to withhold nothing from my faithful God?
February 20, 2025
If you have questions about how real, how present, how personal and intimate the Lord is, then just read six words of travelogue in Luke’s journal as he traveled with Paul.
February 18, 2025
I have known many people who have had great joy and power in the midst of great suffering. It is humbling that the slightest inconveniences deter many of us from following God. We have not gotten to the bottom—settled the issue. Most often, we live for our comfort, reputation, or gain. When any of those goals are touched, we are troubled and discontent.
February 17, 2025
The repentant who finds God gains everything. “He who has God and everything else,” said C.S. Lewis, “has no more than he who has God alone.”
