Scripture: Hebrews 11:17-19 (ESV)
"By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, 'Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.' He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back."
Many of us will have gone through some sort of leadership training or to some youth group retreat or similar, where you have to do that silly trust fall exercise. You know the one where you stand with your back to everyone else in your team and you have to fall back and they have to catch you. This is supposed to promote trust within the group and supposedly promotes teamwork and team cohesion. I think all it does is reinforce your already sensibly formed view that humans shouldn’t just close their eyes and blindly fall backward.
Nevertheless there is something about a trust fall that in a small way captures the kind of faith Abraham had in our passage. He had been been promised that his descendants would come through Isaac. Isaac was the child of the promise that had been born to him when both his and Sarah’s bodies were “as good as dead”. And yet this is the child God asked Abraham to offer as a sacrifice. God asked Abraham to do something that seemed to contradict everything God had said before. Practically speaking, how could Isaac be the father of the great nation God had promised to give Abraham if Isaac were dead?
And yet, despite the seeming contradiction, Abraham trusted God regardless. He did not rely on his own understanding, but trusted in the Lord with all his heart. This wasn’t a kind of blind faith. Abraham didn’t just say “oh well, I don’t really care about Isaac, and I am just a slave to God anyway so… off with you Isaac”. No, Abraham trusted in God’s power to fulfil his promises, even if it meant that God would have to raise Isaac from the dead.
This same faith is available to you today too. God has already done far more for us than we could ever have hoped for or imagined, in sending Jesus to take our sins on his shoulders. Romans 8:28 reminds us that because of this, everything that happens to the Christian is ultimately for good, even when we can’t see how.
Unlike our teammates on the trust fall exercise, you can trust God because he has already proven himself to be trustworthy.
Prayer:
Lord, please help me trust you when I don't understand. Strengthen my faith to believe in your promises despite my circumstances. Thank you for your faithfulness and for Jesus, who proved your trustworthiness. Amen.
Spiritual Challenge:
Today, identify an area in your life where you struggle to trust God. Write down a promise from Scripture that speaks to this issue and meditate on it. Pray for the strength to trust God fully in this area, believing in His power and faithfulness.
As we finish up our devotion today, can I ask a favour? Could you send this devotion to someone you think needs to hear this? Perhaps it can help them trust God more.
Faith causes trust beyond understanding