“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” ~ Genesis 12:2-3
This is what God tells Abraham, after telling Him to leave to leave his family, leave his homeland, leave everything he has ever known to go to a strange land. Would Abraham trust God, farther than He saw him? Would Abraham trust God enough to leave without the securities of his homeland? Well, the story goes on, Abraham listened and left, just as the Lord had asked him to. I am in awe of the the speed in which this man obeys God. God speaks and Abraham listens, Abraham goes, Abraham does, Abraham says, “Here I am.” I have to remind myself that Abraham wasn’t perfect, he still had his doubts, his fears, and those doubts and fears controlled how he lived his life at times (Doubting God’s promise of an heir- Gen. 15:3 and fearing the loss of his life- Gen. 12:12; just a couple examples). How many times have I allowed my doubts and fears to control how I live my life? How many times have I lacked the faith to believe in God’s promises? How many times did I doubt I would ever make it through nursing school, let alone get there, with the many hurdles the devil laid in the path of God’s promise for me to be a “sick baby nurse”? When I put my trust in God and continued to push on to the goal, my Papa met me and carried me through graduation into not just one job opportunity, but three!
However, that wasn’t the end story, God promised Abraham that his descendants would outnumber the innumerable stars of the stars, and “Abraham believed the Lord…” (Gen. 15:6). After God fulfills his promise of an heir to Abraham, as He always does; Sarah demands that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away (Genesis 21). In this God sees Abraham’s reticence concerning this matter and reiterates his promise to bless Ishmael and his descendants, making Ishmael’s descendants into a great nation. He tells Abraham to do as his wife, Sarah asks, and that he [God] will protect them. Abraham believed in God’s promise and that very next morning, Abraham obeyed.
Time passes and now Isaac is a young man, and God asks Abraham, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and sacrifice him’” (Gen. 22:2) This is the greatest sacrifice Abraham could be asked to give. God had never done this before. Sometimes God asks us to do the unforeseen. You know the story, you know what happened, I’ve heard this story, probably hundreds of time, but it struck me this time around, the way in which he reacts with such immediacy. Yet again, Abraham listens to God and here again, “early the next morning” he obeys. He sets out on a 3 day journey, to do as God commanded him to do, he had 3 days to think, to think of all God had promised through this precious, long-awaited son, and yet he didn’t back out, he trusted God and obeyed. (I am also struck by Isaac in this passage, a young man, old and strong enough to carry the wood for the sacrifice; his intuitiveness, in the lack of a sacrifice; and yet he did not overcome Abraham when he discovered what was happening, but he didn’t. He trusted his father and therefore God. That’s another story.)
I questioned, how willing am I to honor God? Would I sacrifice that is what is dearest to me, would I part with all to him and for him? I got a little glimpse of this, when I felt God was calling me on the race. Why God, would you call me away from a job you so specifically gave me not even a full year previous? Why would He call me to set aside a position that was a childhood dream He destined me to? That’s when He said, “You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.” (Jer. 1:7). Many of you know how much I wrestled with this, and you prayed with me, for me, encouraged me, and beseeched that I listen and walk in all that God called me to. So here I am, in Romania, a week away from month 11! God knew how much the sacrifice of a life-long dream would cost me, He also knew how much the loss of Isaac would cost Abraham? How much greater is the reward of seeing and experiencing His Kingdom; building relationships with His sons and daughters; having my heart break for His children as I sit on a street curb spoon feeding a child to tired to even eat her first meal in 3 days; as I listen to the cries of children as I remove jiggers from the feet, knees, and hands who were left by a mother who felt she could do nothing better for her children than run away? I carry with me the promise that my Papa is teaching me how much I love these people, how much more He loves them, how much more He loves me. How much greater is the reward through Abraham’s willingness to obey, there’s the first promise of innumerable descendants, but God adds to that promise, by promising that Abraham’s descendants will triumph over all darkness and all nations will receive the greatest blessing, Jesus Christ? In Abraham’s obedience, God blesses him. God overflows and pours His abundant love upon Abraham and Abraham continues to walk faithfully. I obeyed, God’s call for me, by coming on the Race, but when will I be like Abraham and God says, “Go” and I go early the next morning, “Do” and I act, early the next morning?
I’m not going to give up, on the idea, that when God asks me to do something, I obey with the urgency and immediacy of Abraham. I’ve been choosing daily, (because that’s where I’m at and what I need to do) to lean on the grace of God to get these desired results. As Joyce Meyers says, in her book, “Battlefield of The Mind”, I’m going to “Regain the territory the devil has stolen from me.”
