When Life Knocks You Off Balance, Cling to Faith

The Bible is full of examples of God's provision for people ahead of their problems. For example, God made arrangements for Joseph to be placed in power in the palace of Egypt, before his brothers threw him into the pit, before Potiphar threw him into prison, and before his family would need his political influence to survive a seven-year famine.

God arranged for ravens to feed Elijah meat in the morning and evening even before he hid himself away in the wilderness. God lodged a coin in a fish’s mouth to pay the Temple tax, even before Peter and Jesus had a tax liability. And before the serpent deceived Adam and Eve into sinning and separation from their Creator, God provided a plan of redemption for mankind through the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). The only thing that should actually concern us is how do we get to that place where God has provided for our deliverance?

There's a popular saying that goes like this: there are only two absolutes in life, death and taxes. But I believe there's a third: sandwiched between you and the promise God has to deliver you from your problem, is a test of faith. As James 1:2 says “count it all joy when you fall into various trials.” Jesus also said it plainly in John 16:33, ”in this world you will have tribulation.” Since we can't get around these tests of faith, we need to prepare for them.

By studying the life of Abraham and Sarah, we can learn three important strategies that will help guide us to experience God's promises, especially when we have been knocked off balance by a trial which puts our faith to the test.

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“Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am’” (Genesis 22:1).

Most Christians know of Abraham's story, how God called the man Abram out of obscurity in the land of Ur and led him to the Promised Land. How this ordinary man, by faith and patience, became Abraham – the Father of our Faith – and received a promise that through his supernatural offspring, Isaac, God would redeem mankind with the coming Messiah.

In Genesis 12, Abraham embraced God’s calling on his life and left everything to pursue the promise of God. But after going 15 years without a child, Abraham began to question his calling, and made a series of bad decisions. Even so, in extreme old age, Abraham and his wife Sarah received their miraculous, promised son.

“Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why ‘it was credited to him as righteousness’” (Romans 4:19-22).

I don’t know about you, but when I read that description of Abraham’s faith, it seems pretty perfect to me. But then I realize that’s not the full story behind Abraham’s faith. It's not where Abraham started in faith, it's where he ended up. And along the way, he was anything but failure free.

- He lied about Sarah being his sister to save his own life, and God had to rescue her from being prostituted to Pharaoh. 

- He was enriched financially from this deception, when Pharaoh paid him to leave the country (Genesis 12:11-20).

- He did it again to King Abimelech, and again was enriched financially (Genesis Chapter 20).

- At first, he laughed at the promise of God (Genesis 17:17); he then slept with Sarah's maid and fathered Ishmael, who was ultimately rejected by God and sent away from his father's house (Genesis 21:9-12).

If you are going to have a “test ready faith,” it’s not that you'll never make mistakes. What's truly important is that you learn from your mistakes and grow. You must be able to say next time it’s going to be different. Next time I'll do it God’s way. Next time, I will absolutely get it right!   You don’t have to be failure free, but when you learn from your mistakes, you will be prepared for the next trial and develop your test-ready faith.

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“Then He said, ‘Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.’ So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you’” (Genesis 22:2-5).

At this point in Abraham's journey of faith, he had received his supernatural, promised child – the one through whom all nations of the earth would be blessed, the one through whom the Messiah would come. And then God says to him: Go, and offer him up to me as a sacrifice. And even though it didn't make sense, Abraham took the boy up to the top of Mt. Moriah, and reasoned that God could raise the child from the dead.

Has God ever asked you to do something that doesn’t make sense?

- Bless those that curse you

- Do good to someone who has spitefully used you

- Turn the other cheek when someone hurts you

- Give to those who steal from you

- Go here...when the logical thing is to go there

- Say this... when the logical thing is to say that

- Do nothing...when the logical thing is to do something

In order for us to walk in faith from where we are now, to the promise that is waiting for us in the future, we must be willing to trust God even when it doesn’t make sense. That is, trust that God always has our best interest at heart. It’s not our job to know how God is going to work things out; it’s our job to simply trust that He will!

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“So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, ‘My father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ Then he said, ‘Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?’ And Abraham said, ‘My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.’ So the two of them went together. Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son” (Genesis 22:6-10).

If somebody told you that laying hold of the promise of God was easy, they lied. Sometimes the obedience that is required is really quite difficult. It isn’t always easy to put God first, crucify your flesh, take up your cross and follow Him. It isn’t easy, but it’s often a necessary part of the process to develop the faith to receive the promise.

Abraham, sacrifice your son Isaac

Widow woman, give away your last bit of oil and flour

Noah, build an enormous ark

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, don’t bow, go into the furnace

Daniel, keep praying, and be thrown into the lion’s den

David, go fight that giant Goliath

However, big acts of obedience are often the final push that propels us out of our problem and into our promise!

“But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ So he said, ‘Here I am.’ And He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me’” (Genesis 22:11-12).

Ultimately, we are all on a journey toward God being our first priority. And that is the set up for the breakthrough! When God is number one, when Christ becomes the center of our lives, there is no promise from Him that we will not walk into.

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

“Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son” (Genesis 22:13).

It’s no coincidence that the ram was there, caught in the thicket near the place of sacrifice. It was part of God's plan even before the problem existed. It was God's miracle provision before Abraham even knew there was a mountain called Moriah that he had to climb in his future.

God, the Alpha and Omega, had already gone there and set the pieces into place for Abraham. He cleared a place for the altar, grew a thicket of bramble bushes, and provided the ram at just the right time for Abraham's need. So Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh (Genesis 22:14), which means not just the God who provides, but more accurately, the God who sees in advance and provides!

God is never surprised by our problems. The same God who provided a ram for Abraham before he ever stepped on Mt. Moriah has seen our needs and has provided for us as well!

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