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Saturday, January 8, 2011

An Act of Faith

"And Abraham built an altar...and bound Isaac his son."--Genesis 22:9.  A familiar story to many, if not all of us. God commands Abraham to offer up his son Isaac as a sacrifice.  Abraham simply tells Isaac that God would provide the sacrifice on their way up the mountain.  Isaac would be the sacrifice.  However, prior to slaying Isaac, an angel of the Lord tells Abraham to stop and a ram caught in a thicket would be the true sacrifice.

Abraham.  Named in Hebrews 11 as one of the great men of faith. But why? Abraham was promised that his descendants would be as many as there were stars in the sky.  He must have been asking himself if this is the case, how is God going to accomplish this by having me kill my son?  Genesis does not tell us what he was thinking in response to God's command but based on Abraham's obedience we see a tremendous act of faith on the part of Abraham.  I am sure at one point or another, we have looked at God's promises and wondered how God was going to keep His promise in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.  I can speak from personal experience that God has come through for me even when the odds were against me.  But I can nowhere near amount to some of the great men and women of faith named in Hebrews 11, let alone Abraham.  There are times in our lives where the odds will be completely against us.  There will be times when it seems that anything that could go wrong will go wrong.  But we serve a big God.  We serve a God bigger than the problems we face in this life.  We serve a God that doesn't deal in insurmountable odds.  I hate to use a Carrie Underwood's "So Small" song but maybe she is right when she says "That mountain you are climbing is just a grain of sand."  Even this planet we live on is small in comparison to the Universe our Lord as created.  Let us trust in God even in the face of insurmountable odds.  Because what seems like a mountain to you, is a grain of sand to God. I pray you find this encouraging.  May our very lives be an act of faith.  Pray about it,  Love you guys and God bless. :-)

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