Obedience Leads to Resilience
How strong is your faith in Jesus? Is it strong enough to endure when things don’t make any sense, when there’s deep suffering in your life, when God’s doing something you don’t understand, and you’re calling out to God and not hearing any answers? Does your faith have the strength and the resilience to overcome?
I want a resilient faith. I assume you do as well. Today, I want to remind us both how we can be sure to have that kind of faith, especially when things especially challenging.
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When was a time that you expected God to answer your prayers in a certain way or timeframe, but things did not turn out how you had hoped? How did you respond to God? How did you respond to those around you? Upon reflection, what might be a better way to respond to a similar situation in the future?
What did Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac to God, reveal about Abraham’s faith? What did God stopping Abraham from killing Issac, reveal about God’s faithfulness to his promises? Talk to God about this story and where you struggle to understand.
When was a time that God called you to something that confused you at first? How did you respond? How did that situation turn out? What relationship or circumstance might God be calling you to surrender obediently to him, trusting in his faithfulness and goodness fully?
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How strong is your faith in Jesus? Is it strong enough to endure when things don’t make any sense, when there’s deep suffering in your life, when God’s doing something you don’t understand, and you’re calling out to God and not hearing any answers? Does your faith have the strength and the resilience to overcome?
I want a resilient faith. I assume you do as well. Today, I want to remind us both how we can be sure to have that kind of faith, especially when things get really hard. Faith that is resilient is faith that trusts in God to fulfill his promises in his wisdom and in his ways. It means obeying him even when we don’t have a full understanding.
Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.” In other words, by nature, faith is an act of vulnerability. We have a good and loving God who keeps his promises and with whom we can be vulnerable and yet be safe.
We see God’s faithfulness in the story, for example, of Abraham. God called Abraham to the land of Canaan, a land Abraham did not know, and God promised him that he would bless him and make him into a great nation.
God told Abraham that he would have numerous descendants, too many to count. But Abraham was already an older man, and so was his wife, Sarah. She could not bear children, and so she struggled to believe God’s promises. In fact, she laughed at the idea of being able to get pregnant at her old age.
Abraham and Sarah set off to Canaan, and many years after, they’re still unable to have children. So Sarah’s faith in God’s promise got weaker. She ends up giving Abraham her slave Hagar to sleep with so they could have a son. Hagar gets pregnant, she has a son, but now, Sarah hates her and treats her with contempt.
Sarah was growing bitter during this time of waiting, and that can happen to us too. When we don’t see God’s promises come true, we start to get angry and frustrated, and we pour out that bitterness onto others. God, however, follows through with his word.
Years after the promise was made, Abraham and Sarah have a son named Isaac, which is wonderful. But then, something confusing happens in Genesis 22, when God calls Abraham to sacrifice his son. Instead of protecting his son, Abraham is told to offer his son to God.
Now, I’m a mother, and I cannot imagine this idea of sacrificing my child, but in a way, we sacrifice our children in the altars of this world. We sacrifice our children to our success altar or to our selfishness altar. There are a lot of ways that we put our children at risk of being hurt. In this case, God is calling Abraham to sacrifice his son on the altar of a good God.
Remember, Isaac was a gift from God. Abraham and Sarah are already in their late senior years. Abraham was 100 years old. They didn’t have the power to have a son on their own, and yet, God did this incredible miracle. That miracle belonged to God from beginning to end. In other words, God asked Abraham, and in a way, he’s asking us, “Will you sacrifice this wonderful gift I’ve given you? Will you trust me enough with your heart?”
God promised Abraham that Isaac would be the one through which a huge nation would be born. In order for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and for that promise to still be fulfilled, God had to bring Isaac back from the dead, or he’d have to provide some other way for Abraham to accomplish the testing of the faith.
Sure enough, that’s what God does. Abraham believes in God. He trusts him. He takes his son up to the mountain, and when he’s about to sacrifice him, this is what happens in Genesis 22:11-14. Let’s read.
“But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’
He replied, ‘Here I am.’ Then he said, ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me. Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said, ‘It will be provided on the Lord’s mountain.’”
As you can see, God provided a different way for Abraham to fulfill what God had called him to do. Abraham was obedient and was commended for his faith. This is how Abraham’s faith grew and became resilient. Like it was for Abraham, in order for us to truly trust God with our lives, we sometimes have to be okay with not knowing how things are going to work out. We have to be okay with remembering that God is faithful to fulfill his promises. But they may not occur when or how, or the way we expect.
It’s ultimately good for us to surrender our hearts, our deepest desires, even our good things that God has given us to him so that we’re reminded that he is faithful through and through all the time.
Here’s the thing. God gave Abraham the opportunity to surrender the very thing he loved the most: his son, Isaac. Would God call you to do the same? When he did, would you be willing to give that most important thing, that thing that’s so important to you? It’s not that we need to go and test God, but when God calls us, to let him have full control of our lives, will we say, “Yes”?
When we hold everything loosely and remember that every good and perfect thing comes from him, our faith will be resilient, no matter what happens. He will always bless us with his perfect love and help us endure when things get hard. God provides a way for us. We don’t have to save ourselves.
Remember, Jesus came and gave his life for us. He was a perfect sacrifice. He knows our suffering, and he can comfort us in our time of struggle. We don’t have to hold onto anything so tightly that it embitters our heart when we lose it. Rather, we can hold every circumstance, our relationships, our jobs, our children, our very lives loosely because God has us in his loving arms.
Yes, our faith in Jesus can be resilient. Our faith in Jesus can overcome whatever struggles we face, whatever confusion we have, whatever suffering we deal with because God is a God who keeps his promises. He will be good through and through, no matter what. Let us pray.
Oh Lord, what a good thing to remember today, that we can trust you no matter what happens. Lord, even growing a faith that is resilient and strong is something we can ask you to help us with. Thank you for the example of Abraham. We learn from him that we can trust you with anything, no matter how hard it is. We learn to release our desire for control, our desire for certainty. Father, we learn to live in freedom and not in bitterness.
Lord, we are so grateful today. We ask that you help us. Especially those of us who are in a very difficult season right now, who are struggling, God. Would you come close and help us in those moments? We pray those things in your precious name, Jesus. Amen.
As you can see, we are passionate about God’s Word. We have created a brand-new course for you on Psalm 119, a psalm that celebrates the Hebrew alphabet and God’s faithfulness. In this course, we provide you with 22 short videos, a practical study guide, and a beautiful PDF of the Hebrew alphabet. Every Hebrew letter has great meaning for us, and we believe this will help you delight in God’s instruction. So head over to Trochia.org to purchase or to learn more.
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Thank you so much for joining me for this week’s devotional. I pray that the peace and grace of Jesus Christ be with you today and all week long. God bless you.
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