By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.  He received the promises and he was offering his unique son, the one it had been said about, your seed will be traced through Isaac.  He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead, and as an illustration, he received him back.  Hebrews 11:17-19

God’s predictions and promises will, at some time in my life, appear to have been snuffed out by present circumstances. This was the position in which Abraham found himself.

• God promised him a son in his old age.
• That son would be the seed through which a nation would be born.
• But then God told him to sacrifice his son.
• Crisis ~ A nation can’t be born through a deceased boy of 17 who has never fathered a child.

What was Abraham to think next?  God would either break His promise – which was an impossibility since God was true and holy.  Or, God would have to resurrect Isaac after death.  But since there were no recorded resurrections up until that point, the notion was original and outlandish with Abraham. Which would you believe?  Which would I have believed when both seemed impossible?

We will each experience many times in our lives when our faith reaches a crisis point.  Sometimes, it can be over the same issue as we see it ebb and flow from ‘unlikely’ to ‘somewhat promising.’  I am struggling with such a thing this morning.  The fix is a review of God’s history, God’s power, and the sustaining effect of living in the Word which lives and abides forever.

Satan is the faith-killer.  May he not succeed as we hold up our hands yet again for God’s peace and promises to come in like a flood.

By Your grace, and with Your angels if needed, don’t let me put my hands down. Amen

Therefore from one man—in fact, from one as good as dead—came offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as innumerable as the grains of sand by the seashore. Hebrews 11:12

From one as good as dead ~ came a nation.  Who can bring that about except God!

No one likes to hear the words, “Your chances are slim.”  Or worse yet, “There is no chance for success.”  The latter is certainly what would have been said regarding Abraham and Sarah’s desire to conceive a child in their old age.  The window of time for such a possibility was long past.

What is it you have given up on today?  Your hopelessness is based on the logical evidence sitting in front of you.  It might be too late, too expensive, or too hopeless considering the people involved.  There are many more reasons than these for seeming impossibilities.  But God ~

Do you know for certain that God is going to touch what is nearly dead to bring about a miracle?  Probably not – unless He has appeared to you somehow to declare it.  But that does not mean that you and I should hang our head and live in despair that what we’ve prayed for is an absolute impossibility.  As long as we live and breathe, God can do anything.  And if we consider God and see with eyes of faith, that produces joy and expectancy, not mourning and resignation.  While I don’t have ~ I can still sing with hope.

I laugh like a child at Christmas at the possibilities within the realm of Your power.  Amen

She [Sarah] considered that the One who had promised was faithful. Hebrews 11:11b

Sarah, facing impossible probabilities for childbearing, stopped to consider the One who had made her the promise of a child.  That’s a good and needed practice for any of us who wilt with doubt when we see no evidence of God’s promises being fulfilled.

What does it mean to consider God?  I consider Him like I might consider anyone who gives me their word about something important.  I ask questions.  “How trustworthy have then been in the past?  Have they ever broken their word?  Do they have character traits that would lead me to doubt their promises?  How have they been intentional to love me well in the past?”

When it comes to my spiritual life, this exercise is imperative where God and I are concerned.  He makes promises that aren’t always realized immediately.  In fact, most are not.  They require faith.  So, I stop to consider and then I remember his track record.  I read other’s accounts of His trustworthiness.  I ask older saints if God has ever broken His word.  I review His character traits and ask myself if someone like Him should be trusted 100% of the time.  And finally, I review how He showed His love for me on a hill outside Jerusalem.  He gave what was most expensive to make me His ~ the life of His perfect Son.

I’m convinced that sometimes faith is weak because we simply don’t know enough about God.  Imagine if the angel had come, not to Mary, but to some other young teenage girl who did not know God at all.  Would the Magnificat ever have come from her lips?  She would have had nothing to say of much theological magnitude; no theology was tucked away from learning and experience.

If I’m weak in faith, shaky on promises, the fix is a daily IV drip of Living Water.  Cumulatively, the effect is huge.  A mind washed with the water of the Word does not even think of doubting God.  It has been transformed into an entity shaped by divine power.  It, by default through years of training and submission, breathes faith.

I consider You where faith is weak and the evidence for trust is ironclad.  Amen

By faith even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age, since she considered that the One who had promised was faithful.  Hebrews 11:11

Our sinful nature encourages us to be unkind and judgmental.  I can be that toward Sarah.  I’ve wondered over the years why she was in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews.  Was she really a giant of the faith?  When God told Abraham, within earshot of his wife, that she would conceive at 90 years of age, she laughed to herself and then denied that she did it.  Not only that, but after ten years of waiting for God to fulfill His promise, she took matters into her own hands and helped God out by having Abraham sleep with her maid.  Ishmael was the result.  So how can God see her as a woman of faith?

Just the way he sees me, and sees you, sin, then obey, sin, then obey.  Does he see our less than sterling moments?  Yes.  Does he hear our spoken doubts, even cynical distrust that we mutter under our breath?  Yes.  Do we take matters into our own hands to shorten the time in God’s waiting room in order to ease our unbelief?  Yes.  Yet, God does not judge us in the end by our moments of weakness.  What matters is how we viewed our sin and whether we repented to make course corrections.  His mercies are new every morning.

Sarah did laugh again – but this time, at the birth of Isaac and in celebration of God’s power.  This last laughter was one of joy that God had done the miraculous for her.  She went public with it too, erasing any notion that her distrust of God had become permanent and turned her into a sour skeptic.  She was no curmudgeon.  She laughed like a child over God’s goodness.

None of us want to be judged by our worst moments.  None of us should judge Sarah because of a few unattractive moments of faithlessness.  God doesn’t.  When He reviewed her life, He saw faith.  So much so, that among all those in biblical history who exemplified faith in astounding ways, Sarah was divinely chosen to be remembered in this lineup of heroes.

Are you wincing over my past mistakes?  Have you defined me by my sin?  I know better.  If I’ve repented, my sins are behind your back, out of sight.  Let me hear your joyful laughter over my life.  Amen

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went out to a place he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he was going.  By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, coheirs of the same promise.  Hebrews 11:8

Oh, what faith it took for Abraham to leave the land of Ur to follow God.  Oh, what faith it took for him to embrace Yahweh and forsake the gods of his family.  Daily, what faith it took to sojourn through foreign territory with all the resistance he encountered.  And, what faith it took to believe that he would father a son in his old age.  All of these were steep tests. 

But the greatest, at least to me, was that when he reached the land of promise and it was already inhabited by other people, he stayed to live as a foreigner. He still believed God even though he adjusted to the fact that his time of tent dwelling was not over.  He had to be sick of it.  He’d done it throughout his long journey.  He’d remained true to God and kept himself from calling anyplace home.  He’d kept his family nomadic so that when God spoke, they could move on to their stopping place.  Did he promise his family that when they reached the land God promised, they would leave their tents and build houses?  Probably so.   

It would be like God leading me to move to Finland, promising me a particular home once I moved, but after arriving there I discover that the house is occupied and not even for sale.  The people who live there have no intention of selling and they are hostile when I inquire. 

Was this not what happened to the children of Israel hundreds of years later when they reached the perimeter of the promised land under Joshua?  It was not vacant, just waiting for them.  The Canaanites had no intention of giving it up without a fight.  To make the faith test even greater, the inhabitants were giants and, humanly speaking, no match for God’s people. 

When God makes a promise, one I am to embrace by faith, I can count on the fact that there will be many realities within my field of vision that beg to disprove it.  The fulfillment is rarely instant.  Dave Wilkerson called it ‘the death of a vision’.  God calls, I listen, there are confirmations, but when I set out by faith, all evidence disappears that I am on the right path.  I begin to think I heard wrongly.  This is the journey of faith.  I’m not the first to fear that God led me astray. I won’t be the last to have the foundations of my faith shaken.  So what comprises a man or woman of faith?  It is not that they ever fail to ever doubt but whether or not they obey in spite of their trembling. 

In this chapter, Abraham is remembered because when he was called, he obeyed.  By faith, he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise.  By faith, he continued to live in tents instead of fleeing in disbelief. 

Today, I steady the course when the enemy comes accusing Your character.  Amen

By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.  Hebrews 11:7b

How was the world condemned through Noah’s faith?  Through his daily activity of building the ark.  Condemnation came on all those who watched, because ~

• God spoke to Noah about coming judgement.
• Noah believed and proved it by spending his life building the ark.
• Noah spoke to the people about the coming judgement.
• They did not believe, and it was their unbelief that condemned them.

So the faith of one can condemn the unbelief of the other.  People who walk in darkness can never say that they didn’t know. 

Oh, how two married people, a person of faith and an unbeliever, grate against one another! 

• The one with peace during a trial is trying to co-habit with the one who is undone by how much is wrong.
• The one with faith in the unseen God is trying to co-habit with the other’s logic and unbelief.
• The one who is angry about injustice is trying to co-habit with the one who trusts God to rule righteously.    
• The one who tries to take her children to church by herself is trying co-habit with the one who believes she is pushing religion down their throat.

By faith, Noah condemned the world.  His obedience alone did it.  And we experience the same sparks today when we live by faith.  The greater the unbelief, the more sparks there will be when we are in their company.  Jesus told us it would be this way.  “Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.”  John 3:19

How often have Your children been called judgmental?  And many never opened their mouths.  Give us the grace to obey, by faith, knowing such combustible results.  Amen

By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family.  Hebrews 11:7

How many warnings does scripture give a believer about the fallout of sin?  So many!  ‘If you do this, then this will be the outcome.’  Yet, despite their familiarity to me, I have chosen to sin anyway.  It wasn’t that I didn’t believe God, it was just that I lacked godly fear and respect. 

Imagine how steep the curve of faith was for Noah about God’s warning of a coming flood.  All he knew was an evil world.  All he knew was that the evil he witnessed seemed to go unchecked.  All he knew was a world without rain.  All he knew was that God’s judgement was under a restraint.  To hear that a judgement would come on the whole earth had to be a stretch in and of itself.  Then to hear that it would come in the form of water and a flood ~ that was an even bigger stretch.  What motivated Noah to believe such a tall tale?  Godly fear. 

“Where is God in a world of suffering?” is a question posed to Christians all the time.  We struggle to answer and know that, for many, it is a rabbit trail to keep them from considering their need for a Savior.  But it is also the cry of those under the burden of a fallen world; those who wonder how they will make it one more day.  The delay of God’s intervention can erode godly fear of His power and kingship.

God’s inactivity didn’t erase the urgency of Noah’s labor so it is no wonder that he is in this lineup of faith!

How does this impact me?  First, I take my sin seriously because it does have, and will have, the outcomes about which God warns.  Secondly, I am not lulled into complacency about the promise of Jesus’ return and the need to tell the lost about their end.  Their future is their coming flood and I should never take for granted that I am already inside my Ark of safety, Jesus.  He longs for people to know, to believe, and to be saved.  My heart should beat like his. 

Just as it started raining one day in Noah’s time, the trumpet will sound and You will appear in the clouds.  Increase my godly fear that results in urgent obedience.  Amen

Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.  Hebrews 1:6

Does this statement seem a bit redundant to you?  “The one who draws near to God must believe that He exists.”  I’ve been thinking about this for days now and asking God about this scripture. 

For me ~ this is how the Holy Spirit personalized it. 

With faith, which is believing that God will do the impossible, I move toward God and believe that He exists in my situation. 

Without faith, which is not believe that God will do the impossible, I move away from God and believing that God doesn’t exist, or is irrelevant, in my situation. 

The kindest thing we can ask each other is ~ “Where is God in this?”  It forces us to consider why we have gone to a place of despair and called something hopeless.  Is God no longer alive?  Is God suddenly someone who has broken His promises?  Does God no longer love me?  Will God no longer be a faithful Father?  Though we might never voice such admissions, lamenting utter despair voices them for us. 

What is it that sends you to a desperate place today?  Let me take your hands in mine, look into your face, and then ask you, “Where is God in this?”  It’s a loaded question even though a simple one.  It’s good for me to ask you to affirm, yet again, who God is and what He says He will do. 

Is this a guarantee that He will answer my prayer in just the way I’m praying He will answer?  The hard truth is ‘no’.  He might not – but then again, He might.  So where is my hope in this uncertainty?  That no matter the outcome, He promises many things regardless.  Companionship, peace in the uncertainty, joy in the sorrow, and complete restoration of what I’ve lost in the end.  Someday, you and I will get it ALL back and more.  Nothing is really lost – just deferred with interest. 

I stretch out my faith, I draw near, and I declare that ‘You are in this’.  Amen

By faith Enoch was taken away so he did not experience death, and he was not to be found because God took him away.  For prior to his removal he was approved, since he had pleased God.  Hebrews 11:5

This chapter begins by telling the brief stories of two men from different, ancient civilizations.  Abel dates back to the time of Adam and Eve.  Enoch dates back to the time before Noah and the flood.  Each was commended for their faith yet one was brutally murdered while the other was miraculously taken out of this world without having to die.  It’s hard to understand the disparity.  One death was horrific, the other was spared of death completely.  Nowhere does it indicate that Enoch was more righteous than Abel. How did he get off so easily?

It’s a reminder that God’s plans are just God’s plans and cannot be reasoned out by mankind ~ even though we try.  We dissect other’s lives, and our own life, and compare the proportions of their joys and sorrows with our own.  When things are easier for us, we can feel guilty.  Why are things so much harder for people we love?  And when things appear harder for us than what others suffer, guilt is a common bedfellow.  We believe we must have done something wrong to be in this position. (What further reinforces this is when others feel you must have done something wrong, too.)

Back to Enoch and our assumption that he got off easy.  I’m sure it wasn’t a cakewalk for him to walk with God in the midst of pre-flood evil.  The world had fallen into debauchery the likes of which we’ve never seen.  One of the main reasons for this is that man lived many centuries as opposed to 60-70 years.  He had that much more time to feed his wayward appetite.  Think of an elderly person of today.  Unrighteous traits, without Jesus, only intensify with age. 

Many care for their parents and have an extremely difficult time managing unrighteous traits that have only magnified with age.  In the days of the flood, multiply this sowing and reaping phenomenon by 300-400 more years.  The imaginations that conceived evil were so much more debase.  In this time period, whatever evil thing man thought of in his heart, he went and did.  There was no pause, no restraint.  Nothing was off limits.  I try to imagine what it took for Enoch to walk with God and keep himself pure.  The loneliness. The jeering. The persecution.  We’ll never know but perhaps Enoch had it far more difficult than Abel. 

Without understanding any of this fully, I need to remind myself that God just chooses to entrust some people with more pain.  Period.  I may never know why.  It’s certainly not because he loves one person more than another.  And while some pain is experienced as consequences of earlier choices, that’s not always the case.  Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation.”    

Enoch is in the hall of faith.  So is Abel.  Whether I understand the reasons why is immaterial.  They were God’s possession and He knew all the things we don’t.  Scripture, His inspired and inerrant Word, captures their honor for all to read.  That is enough.

When things are hard, don’t let me forget any of this. Amen

It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith. Hebrews 11:4

What shapes a person’s view of God?  Much of it lies in their history. Abel’s worldview was largely defined by what transpired in the lives of his parents.  I can imagine his childhood.  He heard from his mom and dad (Adam and Eve) what it was like to walk with God in a place called paradise.  He heard the incredible stories of their assignments which had been joyful and wonderfully productive.  He knew the account of his parent’s sin and their expulsion from the garden.  The weight of their losses and their regrets had to have hung over their lives like a shroud.  He lived with the effects of their grief as well as their longings for how things used to be.

How far away did they move from the blocked entrance to the garden?  Perhaps not far.  Maybe they went to the perimeter of Eden often to lament their past choices and remember its former glory. We’re not told but if we read the story with our imagination, we feel the tragedy of their banishment and its ongoing effect on their lives.

I suspect that Abel grew up in an environment where sin was taken seriously as were the sacrifices that were needed to atone for those sins.  His respect and trust in God emerged out of the ashes of his parent’s choices. While he could have harbored a root of bitterness against God for His divine judgement on his parent’s sin, He didn’t.  What God required of him is exactly what Abel provided; the firstborn and healthiest of his flocks.  God was pleased with his offering. 

Cain grew up in the same family.  He heard the same stories.  Yet, what a reminder that children can respond so differently though they come from the same environment.  He chose to have issues with God.  Was there a root of bitterness against God for driving his parents out of the garden?  Did he think the curse was unfair?  Was he angry with his parents for ruining his life and future?  Did his older brother’s respect for God grate against his own misery?  Apparently.  Cain murdered Abel – making him the first martyr for the cause of Christ.

Abel’s faith was commended by God and though his remains, more than 60 centuries old, have long turned to dust, his voice still speaks.  So pleased was God by his sacrifice that he is recounted in this great lineup of faith heroes.  The reason for this is worth every moment I ponder it.  Such a short story. Such a poignant illustration of a God-honoring sacrifice.  Yet how large an impact!

Don’t let me miss what their lives beg to teach.  Amen