9-18-2014

 Good Morning All,

          Hebrews 11:17; “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son”

      “By faith” that is the theme of this great chapter in Hebrews; some call it the “Hall of Faith”.  It lists many of the “greats” who we all look to as inspiration in the Bible.  We look to these people as the greats, the stalwarts of faith.  Yet if we look at them truly close we see that they are really human, just like us.

     Abraham led a life that was filled with questioning doubts at times.  Even though he had God’s promises, Abraham often struggled with God’s truth.  Along the way there were many times when Abraham doubted God’s assurances.  He hid his wife Sarah twice by calling her his sister rather than his wife.  He thought he was getting too old to have a child with his wife Sarah so they “borrowed” Sarah’s slave girl and used her to produce a child.  Abraham would hear God’s promises but would sometimes wonder.

    We do that much of the time; don’t we?  We have heard God’s promises to us yet we wonder sometimes how it can ever work out.  We may wonder what God can possibly have in store for us when our spouse turns cold or our children turn angry and belligerent.  We wonder what good comes from our health going bad or our memory failing.  We wonder sometimes what it all means.  Sometimes it means that God is showing us faith.

      Sometimes we claim faith but do we have true faith.  We have the security of our job, the security of our wealth, the security of our family so we are safe and secure.  Yet what happens if these are slowly stripped away.  What do we truly rely on then?  We may find that we place too much of our trust in the wrong things and sometimes, God strips those away so we can find our true faith.  Sometimes, he removes the crutches that we rely on to show us that our true hope is not found in them.  Sometimes he slowly removes them to show us the truth.  Sometimes, this process can be incredibly painful.  It might be physical pain or emotional or spiritual but it is pain.

    So God peels away the false hopes and reveals to us the only true hope that we have and that is God’s own grace.  That is what Abraham was left with when he held the knife over Isaac.  God had promised to use Abraham’s son to build a great nation and yet God wanted him to sacrifice him.  We can only imagine what went through Abraham’s mind at that time but we know that whatever it was; it settled on faith and trusting God.  There are times in our life just like that and we too can only trust in God’s faithful promise to be with us, to guard us and to defend us through it all.

Gracious Lord, all we have is you.  You are our only hope; our only stay.  Strengthen us that we might not be moved from this certainty.  Be with those who are struggling with the challenges of life and lead them to focus their eyes and their hope only on you.  In your precious name, O Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret