...and normally last night I would have met with a wonderful group of ladies for our Tuesday night Bible study. We have been meeting for several years and it is a very special time of study, fellowship and prayer. We most recently completed the study, "The Magnificent Obsession," a study on the life of Abraham by Anne Graham Lotz. It was a very insightful study into the life of this grand patriarch who became God's friend through a life of faith. We are now in between studies, but will soon be back together in the fall for another time of pursuing God through His Word.
As I think back through the 7 weeks of this study, I am reminded that Abraham:
1. Obeyed God's call to leave his homeland, got to the place where God led him, built an altar and worshipped God
2. Left that place to go to Egypt to find food (no evidence of God's direction in this move, and probably an act of lack of trust in God's provision)
3. Lied to Pharoah about Sarai being his sister, not his wife
4. Returned to where God wanted him and worshipped God
5. Received God's promise of an heir and numerous offspring, "Abram believed the LORD and he credited it to him as righteousness."
6. Lost trust in God to bring him the promised son and entered into a sexual relationship with Hagar, a slave girl brought back from Egypt (where he probably never should have been), from which Ishmael was born (all this was at the prompting of Sarai).
7. Received God's new name of Abraham and obeyed God's directive to be circumcised as a sign of God's covenant with him.
8. Received the promise that Sarah would bear a son within a year and believed, pleaded with God for the deliverance of Sodom on behalf of Lot.
9. Saw the destruction of Sodom from a distance and left the land to which God had led him.
10. Lied to Abimelech about Sarah being his sister, not his wife (deja vu all over again!)
11. Prayed to God following his lying.
12. Celebrated the birth of Isaac, the promised son, with Sarah, his mother.
13. Obeyed God and showed his absolute submission to His direction by offering Isaac as a sacrifice - an offering for which God provided a substitute.
14. Received complete blessing from God.
Just recapping to make it very obvious that Abraham, that great man of faith, a man called the friend of God, had a lot of missteps along the way. We all do. But what made Abraham "faithful" was that he always came back...he came back to the place where God wanted him, built an altar, and worshipped sincerely, with a heart of repentance I believe, for getting off track...again! And he ended with a strong showing of faithfulness and trust in God.
Have you, like me, gotten off track at times in your life? In reflection, it is those times that I regret the most, and Satan can use those times to accuse and condemn. But then I reflect on Abraham's life of ups and downs and understand that I serve a merciful God who knows not only my missteps and mistakes, but my heart that wants to be His more than any thing else. And I see Jesus on a cross saying, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." At times, I haven't realized the impact of my actions...I haven't known how much I was hurting God by my rebellion. But He still provided mercy and grace for me when my eyes were opened and I returned to Him...every time. And I worship Him with a heart that is SO incredibly thankful!
Does this mean, paraphrasing Paul, that I can continually repeat my mistakes without regard, counting on God's grace to cover me? Heaven forbid! When you truly become God's friend, the last thing you want to do is offend Him. He is the One who has given so much for me, why would I ever want to do anything that shows anything other than love for Him? Whatever He asks, I can know that He is asking because it is the best for me, and I can comply with absolute trust. That's the point Abraham had reached when he could willingly go to Mount Moriah and offer his one and only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice to God. I have to ask myself, "what is my Isaac"?
What God wants is my heart...my heart given to Him, fully and completely. Does He have it? What am I holding onto, unwilling to lay on the altar?
I pray that I show the same progress that Abraham did...and finish the race with the same strong showing of faithfulness and trust in God as he did. For I truly want to be called a friend of God.
As I think back through the 7 weeks of this study, I am reminded that Abraham:
1. Obeyed God's call to leave his homeland, got to the place where God led him, built an altar and worshipped God
2. Left that place to go to Egypt to find food (no evidence of God's direction in this move, and probably an act of lack of trust in God's provision)
3. Lied to Pharoah about Sarai being his sister, not his wife
4. Returned to where God wanted him and worshipped God
5. Received God's promise of an heir and numerous offspring, "Abram believed the LORD and he credited it to him as righteousness."
6. Lost trust in God to bring him the promised son and entered into a sexual relationship with Hagar, a slave girl brought back from Egypt (where he probably never should have been), from which Ishmael was born (all this was at the prompting of Sarai).
7. Received God's new name of Abraham and obeyed God's directive to be circumcised as a sign of God's covenant with him.
8. Received the promise that Sarah would bear a son within a year and believed, pleaded with God for the deliverance of Sodom on behalf of Lot.
9. Saw the destruction of Sodom from a distance and left the land to which God had led him.
10. Lied to Abimelech about Sarah being his sister, not his wife (deja vu all over again!)
11. Prayed to God following his lying.
12. Celebrated the birth of Isaac, the promised son, with Sarah, his mother.
13. Obeyed God and showed his absolute submission to His direction by offering Isaac as a sacrifice - an offering for which God provided a substitute.
14. Received complete blessing from God.
Have you, like me, gotten off track at times in your life? In reflection, it is those times that I regret the most, and Satan can use those times to accuse and condemn. But then I reflect on Abraham's life of ups and downs and understand that I serve a merciful God who knows not only my missteps and mistakes, but my heart that wants to be His more than any thing else. And I see Jesus on a cross saying, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." At times, I haven't realized the impact of my actions...I haven't known how much I was hurting God by my rebellion. But He still provided mercy and grace for me when my eyes were opened and I returned to Him...every time. And I worship Him with a heart that is SO incredibly thankful!
Does this mean, paraphrasing Paul, that I can continually repeat my mistakes without regard, counting on God's grace to cover me? Heaven forbid! When you truly become God's friend, the last thing you want to do is offend Him. He is the One who has given so much for me, why would I ever want to do anything that shows anything other than love for Him? Whatever He asks, I can know that He is asking because it is the best for me, and I can comply with absolute trust. That's the point Abraham had reached when he could willingly go to Mount Moriah and offer his one and only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice to God. I have to ask myself, "what is my Isaac"?
What God wants is my heart...my heart given to Him, fully and completely. Does He have it? What am I holding onto, unwilling to lay on the altar?
I pray that I show the same progress that Abraham did...and finish the race with the same strong showing of faithfulness and trust in God as he did. For I truly want to be called a friend of God.
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