As you look back at your journey of faith, what milestones can you recall?\u00a0 Faith is a process of growth, a journey.\u00a0 While we are judicially declared righteous at salvation, it takes the rest of our life time to work that out in our practice.\u00a0 Faith is also a process.\u00a0 God gives us milestones along the way, but many times, it’s simply learning to trust him through the mundane of life.\u00a0 And in time we see that we are trusting God more today than we were yesterday.<\/p>\n
Today we will be looking at a major milestone in Abraham’s journey of faith.<\/p>\n
Take a few minutes to read these verses and meditate on the questions below.<\/p>\n
Genesis 22:1-24; Hebrews 11:1, 17-19<\/p>\n
I haven’t been very consistent in my study, so to start my study today, I took a few minutes to go back and remind myself of where I have been.\u00a0 We continue to look at the foundation for Paul’s declarations, “For me to live is Christ\u2026”\u00a0 Paul tried to express what it means practically in his life through the words of Gal 2:20.\u00a0\u00a0 “It’s not I that lives, but Christ that lives through me\u2026” God created us for this purpose, and redeemed us for the same purpose of being the physical visible display of Him\u2026 our hands and feet, ears mouth and eyes, heart and mind, to be the instruments He uses to display Himself on earth.\u00a0 The answer to that in the New Testament is Christ in us.\u00a0 But, how did that happen in the Old Testament?<\/p>\n
So far, we have seen the following:<\/p>\n
(Gen 16-21) Since that declaration in Chapter 15 God has been continuing to work with Abraham to hone and refine his faith.<\/p>\n
I really like how Major Ian Thomas describes this situation.\u00a0 In chapter 1 of “The Mystery of Godliness” he wrote this:<\/p>\n
“At God\u2019s command Abraham took Isaac, laid him on the altar he had built and took his knife to slay him, and with actions far more eloquent than words, he said to God by what he did, \u201cYou promised me Isaac! I did not see how You could do it, and in my unbelief and in my folly I produced my Ishmael; I committed myself to Your\u00a0will\u00a0and thought I was more competent than God. Now You tell me to slay him, my only son Isaac in whom You have promised that all the families of the earth shall be blessed. O God, if I slay him, I do not see\u00a0how\u00a0You can do it, but now I am committed to\u00a0You\u2014exclusively\u2014and to all that for which You are committed in me. If slay him I\u00a0must, then slay him I\u00a0will\u2014even if You have to raise him from the dead!\u201d (see Heb. 11:17\u201319). And in so many words God said to Abraham, \u201cThank you, Abraham! That is all I wanted to know\u2014now you can throw your knife away!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 (Gen. 22:12, 16\u201318)<\/p>\n While Abraham had come to the place back in Chapter 15 where he was putting his faith in God’s promise, he still had to grow more.\u00a0 I have to wonder how he would have responded to God’s command to sacrifice Isaac if it was given back in Chapter 15?\u00a0 I think he may have tried to figure out away, in his own strength, to help God keep his promise, without the sacrifice??\u00a0 I don’t know.\u00a0 But, God had taken Abraham on a journey of failure doubt and discouragement, to bring him to this place.<\/p>\n Major Ian Thomas went on to say’<\/p>\n “Abraham had learned the secret of true commitment, and he became \u201ca friend of God\u201d (James 2:23). This is\u00a0reality\u2014and this is discipleship! It is \u201cgodliness in action.\u201d Presenting all that you are\u2014nothing\u2014to all that He is\u2014everything\u2014you are committed to the Lord Jesus Christ\u00a0exclusively\u00a0for all that to which He is committed in you. And you may be supremely confident that He who dwells in\u00a0you\u00a0as the Father dwelt in\u00a0Him\u00a0is gloriously adequate for all that to which He is committed.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Abraham had learned that God is the one who will fulfill what He has committed to do.\u00a0 He doesn’t need our help to do it.\u00a0 He just needs us to be available and obedient.\u00a0 He desires that everything we do, say and are, reflect Him.\u00a0 He will be doing the work through us, using our hands and feet and mouth.\u00a0 We just need to let Him do what He is committed to doing!<\/p>\n So, where are you at?\u00a0 Are you restfully available to God?\u00a0 Are you instantly obedient to what He wants to use your hands and feet and mouth to do?\u00a0 I will leave you with Ian Thomas’ closing comments:<\/p>\n Are you prepared for this to be the quality of your commitment to Christ? If so, then every lesser issue has been comprehended in the greater. It is now no longer necessary for me to ask you whether you are prepared to go to the mission field! It is now no longer necessary for me to ask you whether you are prepared to put your bank account at Christ\u2019s disposal, or your time or your home, or to face you with any other issue I could think of! You would say to me at once, \u201cThese issues now have all been settled\u2014finally, once and for all! If Christ is committed in me to go to the mission field, I am already committed to Him for this! If He is committed in me to use the very last dollar I possess and every other dollar I shall ever earn, I am already committed to Him for this and for everything and anything else to which He may be committed in me! There are no more issues for me to face\u2014only His instructions to obey!\u00a0I know too that\u00a0for all His will, I have\u00a0all that He is\u2014and this is\u00a0all\u00a0I need to know!\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Heavenly Father, thank you for continuing to hone and shape my faith.\u00a0 Thank you that you did not expect complete and total surrender the moment I believed.\u00a0 Just like Abraham you are taking me on a journey to develop my faith.\u00a0 And God, I ask you, I invite you to develop in me a heart of faith like this.\u00a0 I want to be restfully available for you to use my hands, my feet, my mouth to be a physical display of you to everyone I meet today.\u00a0 Teach me to be instantly obedient to what you desire to do today.\u00a0 May I be absolutely confident, as Abraham was, that you are you are completely adequate to accomplish through me what you are committed to do.\u00a0 Teach me to rest in you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our Reality: (Observe) As you look back at your journey of faith, what milestones can you recall?\u00a0 Faith is a process of growth, a journey.\u00a0 While we are judicially declared righteous at salvation, it takes the rest of our life time to work that out in our practice.\u00a0 Faith is also a process.\u00a0 God gives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48605],"tags":[448],"class_list":{"0":"post-671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-faith-journey","7":"tag-ethnos360","8":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Our Response:\u00a0 (Plan, Be Accountable, Act) \u00a0Restfully Available, Instantly Obedient.<\/h2>\n
Our Request:<\/h3>\n