As part of the required reading for a course I am taking, I am working my way through Courageous Faith by Dr. Ed Hindson. Because of the amount of other reading I have to do, I have only covered through the first chapter, which is a chapter on Abraham. Through reading the book and re-reading the account in the Bible, I learned something I do not remember having ever heard before.
The story is probably quite familiar to just about everyone who has spent much time in church. The basics are that God spoke to Abraham, and told him to pack up, leave his hometown (which was a bigger request than it would be today), and head to a country that God would show him. God also promised Abraham (Abram at the time) that he would father a son, and through that son, the whole world would be blessed. The familiar problem, though, was that Abram was an old guy, and his wife was not too young either. So, at the suggestion of his wife, he made it happen by having a child with his wife's maid.
The next time we can tell God spoke to Abram - 13 years later! - He tells him the same thing, that he would father a son and be the "father of many nations." The interesting part to me is Abraham's response - not the laughing part, but the part where he said to God, "May Ishmael live under your special blessing!" This is where I think a lot of us, myself included, have chosen to hang our belief in God. Abraham was fine with what God wanted to do, he just thought that God would do it in a way Abraham was already comfortable with.
I question myself when I ask, how many times, or in what ways, do we ask God to bless what we already have instead of surrendering to His plan? We believe God can do anything, yet we so easily try to contain Him in the box of our lives as they are, instead of letting Him work in the limitless space of His own purposeful creativity. It is as if we say, "Sure, I surrender my life as long as You are OK with what I already have. Here is my life, just the way I like it. Bless it like it is. Make it You're will." We consistently struggle to cram God's plan into the shape of our lives, when the request all along is for us to loose our lives into God's plan. We want to make Him our number one priority, when He does not want to be a priority, He wants to be our lives. Being a follower of Christ is not about making Him a part of us, but about us becomming a part of Him.
So God's response to Abraham was the same as it is to us. "No." God says, "Thanks but no thanks on doing it your way. I will bless your life, I will keep my promise, but only when you say 'OK' to my direction." God does not want our suggestions, and why should He? He is God. He is the One with the plan. He is the One who does not mess up. He does not want our choice of "sacrifice." He wants our obedience.
The story is probably quite familiar to just about everyone who has spent much time in church. The basics are that God spoke to Abraham, and told him to pack up, leave his hometown (which was a bigger request than it would be today), and head to a country that God would show him. God also promised Abraham (Abram at the time) that he would father a son, and through that son, the whole world would be blessed. The familiar problem, though, was that Abram was an old guy, and his wife was not too young either. So, at the suggestion of his wife, he made it happen by having a child with his wife's maid.
The next time we can tell God spoke to Abram - 13 years later! - He tells him the same thing, that he would father a son and be the "father of many nations." The interesting part to me is Abraham's response - not the laughing part, but the part where he said to God, "May Ishmael live under your special blessing!" This is where I think a lot of us, myself included, have chosen to hang our belief in God. Abraham was fine with what God wanted to do, he just thought that God would do it in a way Abraham was already comfortable with.
I question myself when I ask, how many times, or in what ways, do we ask God to bless what we already have instead of surrendering to His plan? We believe God can do anything, yet we so easily try to contain Him in the box of our lives as they are, instead of letting Him work in the limitless space of His own purposeful creativity. It is as if we say, "Sure, I surrender my life as long as You are OK with what I already have. Here is my life, just the way I like it. Bless it like it is. Make it You're will." We consistently struggle to cram God's plan into the shape of our lives, when the request all along is for us to loose our lives into God's plan. We want to make Him our number one priority, when He does not want to be a priority, He wants to be our lives. Being a follower of Christ is not about making Him a part of us, but about us becomming a part of Him.
So God's response to Abraham was the same as it is to us. "No." God says, "Thanks but no thanks on doing it your way. I will bless your life, I will keep my promise, but only when you say 'OK' to my direction." God does not want our suggestions, and why should He? He is God. He is the One with the plan. He is the One who does not mess up. He does not want our choice of "sacrifice." He wants our obedience.
posted by Jonathan Branch at 6:18 PM
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