The Lord Provides

I have been reading a devotional this month that has been focusing on the story of Abraham. Though I have read these passages in Genesis many times, I find myself really engaged in the passages more than I have ever before.

Today’s passage (Genesis 22) was about when Abraham was asked by God to sacrifice his son Isaac. This has always made me stop and assess my faith! As a mom I cannot even imagine what type of choice and obedience that must have been for Abraham to be willing to sacrifice his son.

If you don’t know the story of Abraham, God has made a promise to Abraham that he would make him a great nation through his only son Isaac, the one he was now asked to sacrifice. (You can start reading the full story of Abraham in Genesis 11.)

Though I have never had any sort of test in my faith like this one of Abraham, I can count numerous times where I let my fear and doubt creep in my mind rather than trusting in God’s promises to me. I think I do that because I forget that the faith I have comes from the Lord. I am not relying on my own power to have faith in the first place! My faith, when rooted in the Lord, cannot be shaken. Abraham’s faith was so aligned with God that he knew God’s plan was right. He knew God would provide the sacrifice for the offering. Abraham had faith that God knew what He was doing!

No matter what may be coming at me in my life, I so want to remember that the faith I have is rooted in the Lord. He knows what Is set out for me. No matter the worry or fear I have, will stop what the Lord has planned in His perfect will. I am not saying this means it will be easy to surrender my fear over to the Lord, but I know deep down He has the plan.

“No matter what may be coming at me in my life,

I so want to remember that the faith I have is rooted in the Lord.”

Put it in your God box

In Craig Groeschel’s book, Winning the War in Your Mind he talks about a God Box. He says,

“Every time you have a worry, burden, temptation, or runaway crazy thought, write it down on a slip of paper…Write them down and put them in your God box.”

Next he instructs you to give these worries to God by asking Him to take them and then release them in the box for God to take care of. However, as Craig continues writing he says,

“From this point on, if you decide you want to worry about whatever it was, go to the God box, take it out, and tell God, ‘I don’t trust you with this, I’m going to take it back from you.’”

Yikes!

That illustration hit me right between the eyes. I had heard about a type of God box before, but I never thought about every time I would take on that fear or worry I was no longer putting my faith in God, but I was trying to control the situation. I was holding on to the burden as if I thought I was in control.

It seems to me that my faith, when focused on my own power, is really empty. The definition of faith is in Hebrews 11:1 says,

Hebrews 11 has a lot to say about faith and also highlights the faith of Abraham we learn about in Genesis.

By faith…

By faith, Abraham trusted that God had a plan and would fulfill it as he promised. Abraham learned lessons along the way to build his faith, but here he chose to obey the Lord in faith and God was able to fulfill His promise.

We may not have a covenant with God to become a great nation, but God does promise to love and provide for us when we choose to follow after Him. We are allowed the chance to believe in faith that God’s plan is perfect and He will be with us through it all.

God sent His only Son Jesus to be our sacrifice so we don’t have to provide our own. Just like God provided the Ram for Abraham, God provided our amazing Lamb to be the sacrifice for us. If we can put our faith in the Lord, we have no room for the doubt and fear to live.

Where is your faith resting?

Where is your faith resting right now? Do you need to shift your focus and truly rely on the Lord to fill you with the promise He gives? What worries and burdens are you holding onto that need to go in your God box and stay there?

Ultimately I am thankful the Lord loves me and is walking through my days and allowing my faith to grow!

Stephanie