Author: Christine Wyrtzen

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together.  Genesis 22:6

As parents, we know what it’s like to see our children come face to face with hardship.  As we watch them struggle, there will be moments we agonize.  “Lord, it’s too much for them!”

As we watch them come to the end of their resources, just as Jesus did in the desert of His testing, we will do about anything to end their suffering.  The worst part of divine shaping is not the physical pain but the spiritual anguish.  To see childlike faith crack into pieces rocks a parent’s heart.  We pray constantly and ask God to preserve our children’s confidence in His love and promises. 

If ever a book could be written from a single verse, today’s scripture would be one of them.  What are not reflected in today’s passage are the thoughts of this father’s heart.  He appears he was calm, standing in faith for Isaac, but he was still a father.  And though my faith is intact, I am still a mother.

The tears of our children’s darkest moments cannot define our perspective.  The stunning, end-result of their testing cannot be seen yet.  We need to trust God and hold on.  In the meantime, we must not afflict our children with platitudes.  This will alienate them from us – the very ones they need to walk with them through the experience.  What can we do, then?  Share our tears, pray their stories out loud with our arms around them, and assure them that God loves them. 

As a parent, we must ‘build the bridges of friendship strong enough to support the truth.’  We may squirm as we enter in to their doubts, their questions, and their tears, but we are to be willing to engage in their grueling faith walk if invited.  Nothing binds families together like spiritual pilgrimage.

My child, on the other side of this desert, will be radiant and full of iron.  Amen

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac.  And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.  Genesis 22:3

The nighttime is often dreaded if you’re a chronic worrier.  I am one by nature and I have lived much of my life obsessing over things from every angle.  In an hour or two, I managed to work myself up into a crisis.  I made the mistake of looking down the road and imagining everything I thought I’d have to go through. I declared to myself, and to God, that it was all too much.  What I didn’t understand was that the way through any painful journey, including the one Abraham made up the mountain with Isaac, is one grace-filled step at a time.

Let’s walk with Abraham this morning.  He knows the ultimate test that awaits him at the top of Mt. Moriah.  Isaac will be sacrificed.  There are many steps still ahead of him before he will be asked to place his son on the altar.  He began the arduous emotional journey earlier that morning, preparing for the trip.  He woke up early, got his team together, cut the wood, saddled his donkey, and said goodbye to Sarah.  He is learning that God gives momentary manna for difficult days.  He is leaning into it with every step he takes. 

Abraham would have a lot to teach me about fear vs. faith.  He would tell me that to battle for faith means to trust God with one moment after another.  God never gives enough strength, enough grace, for a week or a month.  There’s no such thing as collecting courage that will last the breadth of my journey.  He gives only what I need for this hour. 

For today’s challenges, the wind of the Spirit will strengthen me as the scriptures come alive and saturate my fearful heart.  I will find courage as I remember that Jesus is with me ~ all powerful, all knowing, moving outside of time.  He sees what I need now, and He’s provided what I will need tomorrow.  He promises to infuse my spirit with the same faith that carried Abraham to that very moment when he saw God’s provision of a lamb. 

You and I cannot carry the load of all our tomorrows.  We start with the next step in front of us. What is it?   Prepare to move. 

Ask for grace. 

Arm with scripture. 

Meditate on the words. 

Take Jesus’ by the hand and move. 

This is the recipe for the way of the cross.

I’m no longer immobilized. Thank you. Amen

He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”  Genesis 22:2

When God calls me to a difficult act of obedience, because there appears to be great risk involved, I label it ‘blind obedience’.  But, is it really?

There is nothing more difficult than what Abraham was told to do with Isaac.  To obey was agonizing.  Yet, I contend that his obedience wasn’t blind.

• Blindness is not having any idea where to put your feet.  Abraham walked each step toward Moriah on the foundational stones of God’s character.
• Blindness is not being able to perceive what is ahead.  When I obey God, I know what’s ahead; the blessing and spiritual prosperity that comes with following God’s instructions.
• Blindness involves the fear of falling and causing great personal injury.  Abraham knew the God who held him fast and had already experienced His supernatural protection and provision.
• Blindness involves great risk.  But ‘risky’ usually means foolish.  God is not careless with His children.  There is no risk when I walk in the purposes God has always had planned for me.  Though pain will be part of it, the joy of eternal purposes being fulfilled far outweigh it.  No risk involved.

Obedience is not blind.  With my faith intact, there are so many things I can count on and see with my spirit-eyes.  In fact, there’s 20/20 vision.  God’s history, recounted in the pages of scripture, show me the outcome of those who remember God and walk in His ways.

What has God told you to do.  You’re fainting, perhaps.  Frozen in place.  You were told to leave a family business.  Start a new ministry.  Confront a family member.  Stay in a marriage where you are not loved.  Without faith in God’s character, courage will not come to you.  Please know that you can embark on this journey to Moriah with a full backpack.  Love, promises, a solid history of the One you follow, future blessing, and perfect companionship.

Silence the voice of the accuser who reminds me that the stakes are too high.  The only voice I want to hear is Yours, Lord, urging me to follow You and live!  Amen

At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do. Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.”  Genesis 21:22-23

Why would a king with an army be intimidated by a traveling herdsman and his family?  Because he saw evidence of the presence of God.  God calls the poor and inadequate, shows them His favor, surrounds them with His presence and power, and even kings will tremble.

God’s people have always been outnumbered.  Kingdom mathematics never make sense on paper.  Gideon drove off 135,000 with only 300 soldiers.  Samson killed 1000 men with a donkey’s jawbone.  God predicted these incredible odds.  He said, “Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand – your enemies will fall before your sword.”  If I put the two fractions side by side – then one hundred should only defeat two thousand.  But God promises ten thousand.  I ask my king, “Such blessing is really mine?”  Yes.  I can rely, as God’s child, on kingdom mathematics.  The effect of the presence of God on my life is intimidating to my spiritual enemies.

Paul wanted each of us to know that when we put on the spiritual armor our Father has provided to us for our protection, we are really putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.  The effect of ‘wearing’ Christ like a cloak around our shoulders has cataclysmic kingdom effects.  There will be sparks and I should not be surprised by them.  The greater the oppression in the person I’m talking to, the greater the friction.  I will see this person act out aggressively because of an entity they cannot name.

Clothed in spiritual power, I am to be bold when Jesus would be bold and show restraint when He would be ask me to be humble enough to wait on Him.  I must wear my power lightly.  Prayerful and humble, is my template.

Clothed in Your power, I ask that You make me gentle as a dove but also wise as a serpent.   Amen

Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy, and he grew up.  Genesis 21:18 ESV

There have been times when I’ve accused people for not being there when I needed them.  Later, I found out that they had not been absent at all.  They reached out, they did something anonymously, but I just didn’t know it at the time.  I have learned, quite ashamedly, to be slower to point the finger.

Hagar, while praying for water, couldn’t see the provision of it though it was right in front of her.  God had to open her eyes to it.  Perhaps she was too overcome with grief to see her salvation.

Of all those we could blame for being undependable, God is usually high on the list.  We review our lives, the worst of the worst experiences, and wonder why He didn’t do more at the time.  He promises healing now ~ but then ~ He held back a rescue?  This view on our past causes us to back up from the One who can help us. 

The Well is accessible and ready to give me taste after taste of Living Water.  I don’t have to travel anywhere.  I don’t have to make an appointment.  I don’t have to wonder if He’ll see me.  I have 24/7 access to the One who has exactly what I need at this very moment.  But all these truths have no benefit if:

• I’m tired of not getting what I believe I need the most.
• I’m weary of relying on promises I haven’t seen fulfilled yet.
• I distrust the One who allowed my story to involve a wilderness.
• I believe someone else’s distorted view of who God is and how His kingdom works.
• I believe my pain is His punishment.

 The Comforter I need is right here, now.  The Promise I need is here, too.  There Well is full. He’s refreshing.  He’s inexhaustible.  He doesn’t disappoint.  The most necessary thing I’ll do all day is pinpoint the reason I walk to the well and choose not to drink. 

Be my Counselor and take me through the minefields of lies and misconceptions.  At the end, offer me a drink, again.  Amen

Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”  Genesis 21:16-18 ESV

Hagar held her nearly dead child in her arms.  Her voice was weak.  She was dehydrated and half starved.  No water or provision of food was in sight.  She smelled death but refused to succumb to what seemed to be the inevitable.  She poured out her complaint to the God of Israel.  Where did she learn this?  From the very ones who forced her out of their presence.  Oh, the irony.

Hagar, the least likely spiritual leader, shows each of us the way to glory.  She prayed, listened, cast her hopes on God, and then obeyed.  She lifted up her boy to the God who breathes life into dead souls.  She did not know that a thousand years later, Ezekiel would watch God breathe over a whole valley of corpses and bring them to their feet.  By the breath of His mouth, He would transform skeletons into warriors.

Was God true to His promise to Hagar? Did he make Ishmael the father of a great nation?  Yes.  Many Palestinians have, and will, trust Christ.  When they meet their Lord, how passionate they are about their Savior!

Will God hear me when I take what is weak, infirmed, perhaps even dead, and lift it toward heaven?  Yes. Hagar was told to lift Ishmael up and hold him fast with her hands.  Instead of laying him down in defeat, she embraced him in heartfelt prayer and invested her heart in hope.  And oh, what an outcome. 

I’ve laid some things down prematurely.  You long to breathe over all things expired.  Amen

So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.  Genesis 21:14

What was it like when you got the worst news of your life?  You felt your stomach fall to the floor.  “This can’t be happening to me,” you said to yourself.  “I have to be dreaming and any minute, I’ll wake up from this nightmare.” 

Surely, these were Hagar’s thoughts.  Homeless?  Her life with Abraham had given her security.  Surely someone who loves and serves God wouldn’t be sending she and her son out to the wilderness to die!  Family doesn’t act like that!  Sometimes they do. 

And sometimes, what once seemed impossible has just fallen upon me.  I’ve been the recipient of earth-shattering news, several times.  I was numb for weeks before the tears set in. So, did Hagar weep as she left Abraham’s camp or was she also without feeling, walking but not in touch with her feet?

The very time I need God is the time I can turn away from Him without shedding a tear.  My theology can easily take a bad turn.  I believe God doesn’t see, doesn’t care, and has turned into someone who breaks His promises.  Oh, but this very moment a grand opportunity for faith, a time pregnant to ask for the grace to trust the One who appears untrustworthy. This is the time to put up my shield of faith. 

I know the battle.  I did it again this morning at 5:00 a.m.  Will you join me today where faith and faithlessness intersect?  

In my Hagar moment, I’m looking up instead of down.  Amen

And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing.  Genesis 21:8-9  ESV

Sarah laughed for joy when Isaac was born.  But Ishmael laughed in scorn when Isaac was weaned.  A great party was thrown in Isaac’s honor and the scoffing of the elder son dampened the celebration.

If only Sarah could have done things differently years before. When God’s promise of conception didn’t occur for next 25 years, she concocted her own solution.  She told Abraham to sleep with Hagar to produce a son.  Oh, how that haunted her on this day as Ishmael, a son whom she also loved but conceived outside of God’s will, mocked her Isaac.  Paul described the dynamics well. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. Gal. 4:29 ESV

I can be sure that whatever I make happen in the flesh will collide with what God is doing through my spirit.  Dead works and Spirit-breathed endeavors strain against each other. One is of God.  One is not.  Children even perceive the difference.  Cruel things are said on the playgrounds as Christian children are despised and taunted.

Where is there holy conflict today?  Perhaps your church is a mixed bag.  There are righteous pockets of activity, places where God’s Spirit is breathing abundant life into those who are spiritually hungry.  This, unfortunately, co-exists alongside fleshly ministries that are birthed through ambition instead of prayer.  Enthusiasm is mistaken for holy fervor.  Know this ~ that whatever is of the flesh and whatever is of the Spirit ~ create sparks when in proximity.  There will be a kingdom clash that no amount of mediation will be able to fix.  What is the remedy?  Things of the flesh need to be exposed and repented of at the altar.  Oh, that our homes and churches would cease being divided kingdoms.

May Your kingdom come to the messes of our own making.  Amen

The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.  Genesis 21:1-3

As I look back at Abraham and Sarah’s life, it’s easy to see that God fulfilled every single promise.  But He did it in ‘His appointed time,’ not theirs.  From their perspective, He took too long.  While they waited, they doubted, they blamed, and then took matters into their own hands. Oh, how hard it is when promises take an interminable amount of time to materialize.

One day, when others look back at my life, they will see that God fulfilled every promise He made to me.  It is I who often struggle during seasons of waiting.  Because some promises haven’t come true when I think they should have, I can distrust the One who made them.  But as I review God’s mega-story, I am again overwhelmed with the nature and character of the Promise-Giver.  He has never, ever, broken His Word.

From the time God first promised the birth of Isaac, to the time Sarah conceived, was 25 years.  Yet, that’s nothing.  The ‘appointed time’ for the birth of Abraham’s greater offspring would occur 2,000 years later, in the birth of Christ.  God is never pressured to act outside of His perfect providence.

I have been guilty of judging my life, and my effectiveness, by worldly standards.  The prime of life, supposedly, occurs in one’s thirties.  By the time any of us are fifty, others assume that we’ve peaked and are near retirement.  It’s hogwash.  God didn’t even make the promise about Isaac until Abraham was seventy-five.  Some of the most effective trailblazers for the kingdom hadn’t even warmed up at fifty.  When God promises fruitfulness, it will not be compromised by our age, our education, our natural abilities, or the lack of.  When God calls us, we are equipped.  Period.  His promises will be fulfilled ‘at the appointed time’ and we can know this ~ it will be right on time.  In this we rest – as we wait.

You know what I still pray for ~ and in what promises I stand.  I adjust my clock to Your calendar.  Amen

And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing, [turn over your wife to me]?” Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’  Genesis 20:10-11

Sometimes it appears that I am completely hemmed in. I decide that the only way of escape is to make a choice I would never otherwise make.  I acknowledge that it is against my better judgement, perhaps even my conscience. Yet, my rationale overrules.  Self-protection drives me to cave in, engaging in something unwise.

Abraham was in a tough spot. He had traveled into heathen territory. He feared for the lives of his family. He assumed that the king would act in an unconscionable way, killing him, securing Sarah for himself and seizing all of Abraham’s wealth along with her. It’s not that Abraham failed to be realistic about people. Heathens had a track record for acting this way.  It’s that he assumed the worst about God. He believed God was not strong enough to keep His promises. As it turned out, Abimelech had a strong conscience and once he discovered that Sarah was Abraham’s wife, he trembled in fear over the sin he almost committed.

What Abraham also did, and I never saw this before, was throw temptation before Abimelech. He provided the perfect opportunity for infidelity.  My bad choices always affect others.

I have learned two things the hard way. 1.) When there is no righteous solution, I should not move. Wait on God until He makes a way where there appears to be none.   2.) When the righteous solution appears to have a bad outcome, I obey God anyway and trust Him to lead me into spacious places.

You are my hiding place.  You are my mountain mover.  You are the one who changes the hearts of those who have the power to harm me.  I vow to trust You and not myself.  Amen