I don't know about you but sometimes I have to read things more than once for it to fully sink in. Maybe it's because Christianity and the Bible have always been in my life that I think sometimes I read these stories about people in the Bible and the true weight of it doesn't quite resonate with me because I've heard them for so long.
I learned about Noah and the ark, Moses being set in the river and Joshua and the walls of Jericho in Sunday school when I was a kid. So at this point in my life, as an adult I need to try to see their perspective in their stories. The perspective that they saw through the eyes of God. I'm not so sure that I would have fared so well had I been in their shoes.
The one story in the Bible that always sets me on edge and almost makes me a little angry with God for even suggesting such a thing is the story of Abraham and Isaac. I cannot imagine God asking someone to sacrifice their child, it just boggles my mind. Yet Abraham, BY FAITH, sets out to do just that, believing in God's ability to raise someone from the dead. I don't know that if I had been asked to do that task that I would've had enough faith to follow through.
Joshua, a warrior, someone whose fought battles is asked not to fight but to simply march around a city a bunch of times and then blow some horns. I can't imagine what went through his mind, he had to have been thinking that it was the silliest things he's ever done. How on earth is this going to win the battle of Jericho? However, BY FAITH he did as God instructed. I wonder how amazed they were by the end result.
Noah, oh my, can you imagine? I'm sure his family and all the other people who saw him building this ridiculous boat thought he had to be crazy. I imagine he probably had his doubts about himself as well. It made no sense. However, he ignored the criticisms of everyone and BY FAITH built a boat as God instructed him to.
In all this I'm struck by my own faith, I can't help but wonder how many times I should've acted BY FAITH and didn't. How many times I felt God telling me to do something that made absolutely no sense in my own head so therefore I didn't follow through. How small is my faith that I cannot live by it?
I can however, look back and see times when I have followed through on things He's asked of me that didn't seem quite so ridiculous and am blown away with how He showed up. I've seen Him do things that quite frankly make no sense in my head. He always seems so work things in such a way that I couldn't have imagined that if I tried. So if I already know all this, have experienced these things, why should I have hesitation when He asks things of me that make me uncomfortable?
I live in the world a bit too much I think, worry about what others will think, how it will look, who might criticize or think of me as crazy. What a different place we would live in had Abraham, Noah and Joshua doubted and not done the things that God asked of them. I pray for just an ounce of their faith.
As I head off to Costa Rica here in a mere 11 days (gulp) I am looking forward to opening up my heart to Him in a way I've never done before. Praying for the courage to live by faith, to learn to trust in Him in ALL things, even the ridiculous.
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