God Will Work it Out, But We Must Trust Him

Roller coasters are not for me. I don’t get a thrill going up or down the roller coaster. Instead, I am scared because I like to know how things will pan out. I don’t like surprises.

But so much of life is like a roller coaster. It’s thrilling and then it’s not. We feel joy and then lifeless. We have exhilaration and then we feel sad.

I wonder if this is how Abraham felt when he finally held his son, Isaac in his hand. At age 75 he was told he would bore a biological son and that promise did not happen until he was 100 years old. That’s 25 years of waiting, praying, and trusting God.

And then when it happened God asked him to do the impossible. God asked him to give up the son he loved. I can imagine the conversation Abraham had with God, “ Are you crazy? I waited 25 years for the son. I’m not giving them up. I love him too much.”

But when you read the Bible that’s not what we learn. Abraham obeys God and does the impossible. He gives up the son he waited, prayed for, and believed in.

What has God been asking you to give lately?

What do you love?

Who do you love?

Is it your spouse, your job, your investments, your life, your kid, or the attention you receive?

Is God asking you to give up and surrender what you love? Why is he doing this? Because it’s a test (Genesis 22:1). God wants to know do you love him or the gift. Do you love the blessing or the One who gives the blessing?

Here’s what is interesting about the story. Abraham obeys God. Abraham went ahead to sacrifice his son he also told his servants that we are going to go worship and WE will come back. We? Why did Abraham tell his servants that he and the boy were coming back when he was going to sacrifice his son? I will tell you. Something in his spirit told him that this God who asked me to wait for my son, the one I had faith in, the one I prayed about is the SAME God who must and will work out a solution in my life.

This took tremendous faith on Abraham’s part because he believed that God was going to resurrect his son (Hebrews 11:17-19), even though he had never seen or heard of a resurrection.

Do you have that kind of faith that God will bring a solution to your problem? That he will provide?

Maybe what you’re going through is hard because maybe you don’t want to give up what you love. But maybe we need to be like Abraham and give it up and believe that God can do the impossible. That God will work it out for us. That God will provide.

That’s exactly what happens in the story. After Abraham was willing to give up everything for God, God turns around and says he will surely bless him because this test confirmed for God that Abraham trusted, loved, and was willing to give up what he loved for him.

You see God is waiting for us to trust him even though it makes no sense. Will we be like Abraham and trust God despite how hard it is? Despite giving up what we love? Despite the journey, God is taking us. If we do, God will work it out for us and bless us beyond measure.