Faith: When I Disagree

A few different thoughts have been going through my head lately. Here are a couple. If anything strikes your fancy and you'd like to hear more, send a comment or let me know.

1) Faith isn't faith if I agree with God. Instead, my faith is tested when I disagree or don't understand and I obey anyway: i.e. Abraham offering Isaac on the altar.

2) My response to Jesus reveals much. While the unclean spirits told Jesus to leave them alone and depart, the crowds sought him even in desolate places.

3) I have been much more aware lately of how much worry is created by fear of being inconvenienced. In the end, I will lose nothing more than comfort, but that seems to be the end goal--and I find it sad that my desire is so fleeting and empty compared to what God has in store through difficulty, inefficiency, and inconvenience.

Here is a list of bullet points re: faith, (I am lacking creativity, time, and prose this morning):

• Abraham rose early the next morning, (He didn't wait. He didn't barter. He got up and went.) Genesis 22:3
• He split wood, took 2 servants and his son and went to the place God told Him (note: He didn't choose a "better" place or one that suited his idea of a good idea. He went exactly where God told Him to go.) Genesis 22:3
• Abraham told the young men, "we will worship and return to you" (He did not think less of God; He trusted God to spare his son because God has promised and delivered Isaac once--he was the promised son. Abraham believed the impossible--"that God is able to raise people even from the dead," Hebrews 12:19.) Genesis 22:5
• Abraham put God's plan into action (He did not waver or change God's revealed plan; he obeyed completely) Genesis 22:6
• Even in the midst of conflicting emotions and circumstances, Abraham believed God would provide ("Where is the lamb?" "God will provide for Himself...my son.") Genesis 22:7-8
• Abraham acts in apparent conflict with the character of God to do the will of God: "Abraham bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar...stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son" Genesis 22:9-10.
• Abraham expected God's intervention. When God called, "Abraham, Abraham!" he said, "Here I am." Genesis 22:11.  (How very different than Adam and Even's response to God's call, "Where are you?" Genesis 3:9)
• Abraham looked for and applied God's solution. (When God intervened, Abraham looked, went up and took the ram, offering it in place of his son. God's solution required action, effort, and sweat-equity, but provision was generously, miraculously supplied) Genesis 22:13.
• Abraham's response was not one of resentment, but worship. (He had seen God in a new, amazing, personal way and he now called God by a a new name, "Jehovah Jireh," the Lord will provide.) Genesis 22:13-14
• Abraham, and all the nations, were blessed as a result of his faith and God's provision. Genesis 22:16-18

Signs of Growth, Gifts of Grace

Before Bible study this morning, I vacuumed floors. Not because I'm a Neat Nelly but because of necessity. In one room a full-length mirror lay broken on the floor. In another a potted plant had fallen off the shelf.

It occurred to me that, in the days of young children, this would have been a disaster. A catastrophe. Broken glass and small feet. Black dirt and carpet.

But not today. Today I was alone. Thankful I didn't have clambering, half-dressed, hungry children. Thankful I had a full-size trash bag to scoop up the mirror, frame and (almost) all. Thankful no one had watered the plant before it fell.

And in that moment I realized that past trials have given me grace and patience in today's trials. The first time you find a cat in the clothes dryer, it creates a bit of panic. The next time you know what to do and it's not as concerning.

Isn't God good to teach us, stay with us, remind us of His constant presence and work in and through our lives?

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.

Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures. (James 1:2-18)

Quick Fix

As I sit this morning, with broken water pipes, company, children, harvest--life--I can't help but ask God to fix things. There are dishes, hands, and clothes to be washed. People to feed and care for. God says, "No" or "Wait" (which means "no" for now).

And I am reminded that life here will always be broken and limping. God comes to my aid. I am thankful. And something else goes wrong. And I pray. And He answers.

But what I need, more than a repaired water main, more than settled laundry, dishes, and children, is a settled heart; a heart that is content with or without pleasing circumstances; with or without fixes and affirmative answers to prayer. This morning what I need, all I need, is Jesus.

I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 
(Philippians 3:8-13)

As I read this passage today, it turned inside out. Why did Jesus lay hold of me? What is the prize of the upward call of God on my life?

The upward call is that I, by faith, would be conformed to His death, living not in my own strength but in the power of His resurrection through the fellowship of His sufferings. Jesus laid hold of me that I would glorify and live for Him instead of myself. God's will is to use the life of Christ in my body, at this time of history, in this geographical place, with these people so that, as believers live out the life and purpose of Christ, He manifests Himself across the world.

It's not about fixing things, enjoying life, or making it easier. It's about living daily His death, suffering, and resurrection in trust and faith. I can rejoice when things go well and I see the hand of God in each and every blessing. I can also rest in difficulty, praying continually, trusting that God is working something even greater in the difficulties.Paul continues to write:

Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. (Philippians 3:17-21)