As fires rage across California, some of us have unseen flames burning within our hearts.
A dying parent,
God, where are you?
Pregnancy test still reads negative,
God, where are you?
Discovering an affair,
God, where are you?
Marriage ending in divorce,
God, where are you?
Being abused,
God, where are you?
Filing for bankruptcy
God, where are you?
How can we trust God when there are fires in and around us?
I was recently reading Genesis 22 where Abraham gets tested by God and is asked to offer his son as a sacrifice.
Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. Genesis 22: 2-3 (NIV)
I’ve read this story a few times, but the part that jumped out to me this particular day was verse 3 where it says, Early the next morning.
Abraham didn’t take weeks to think about this. He didn’t argue with God, trying to save his child who he had been waiting years for.
Instead,
He got up the very next morning and did what God had told him to do.
He trusted God.
I wish I could say I would have that kind of faith, but honestly, I would be devastated. Here I am, 100 years old, and finally have the child I’ve been praying for, only to have to sacrifice him. No way!
If you keep reading, you see that God provided the sacrifice, (which foreshadows Jesus as the lamb, the ultimate sacrifice on the cross- see Luke 23).
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said, “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. Genesis 22: 12-14 (NIV)
The Lord Will Provide. Have you witnessed his provision?
If not, do you still have hope? Or do you wonder, “Where is he? Why isn’t he coming in to save the day like a superhero?”
We are so quick to leave God – abandon our trust in him, because he didn’t show up.
I think sometimes we do this because we believe that God is a microwave God. If he doesn’t turn our situation around, stop that thing from happening, then there can’t be a God. How could he allow this?
But we don’t serve a do nothing God. Just because we don’t see the miracle unfolding before our eyes, doesn’t mean he isn’t working.
In the Bible, when the Israelites were wandering through the desert, they started complaining and crying out to God for food. When he answered their prayer, they couldn’t even see the miracle.
When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.
Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.” Exodus 16: 14-15 (NIV)
The Israelites were confused how this could be their provision because the manna didn’t look like the food they were expecting.
Maybe God hasn’t shown up how you thought he would.
It’s not our job to understand how God works, its our job to TRUST that our Father in heaven’s provision is all around us.
I think Abraham’s faith came from looking back at all the ways God provided and how his promises never failed.
Where is God in your story?
I am so thankful God redeemed my own story, and I am praying you can reflect on ways he has provided for you too and learn to trust in him.
Especially in the fire.
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