God's Promises: Abraham Believed

The best way I know of getting closer to God and getting to know him better is to read God’s Word daily. Abraham came to know the God of Israel well enough to be called “friend.” This year I’m returning to reading the Bible in a year* to glean more nuggets about God and to know him better. I’m already finding myself journaling about what the Holy Spirit reveals and would love to share those with you.

Here’s what I gleaned this past week:

Genesis 22 tells the story of Abraham called to sacrifice his son, Isaac. In verse 5, Abraham tells the servants to wait. “We will worship and then we will come back to you” (emphasis mine).

Abraham is portrayed as a man of great faith and a friend of God. Either he was lying to conceal what he intended to do, preventing the servants from interfering and scaring Isaac, or he truly believed he and his son would return. Though my human tendency is to believe the first, my faith calls me to believe the last.

Abraham trusted God’s first promise that He would make a great nation from Abraham’s offspring. Even though the current circumstances seemed to contradict God’s promise, Abraham continued to trust God’s plan and was obedient. Abraham knew God well enough to know that He wouldn’t go back on his promise.

Then there’s verse eight. “Abraham answered, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ And the two of them went on together.” This line is prophetic. Abraham not only spoke of the current sacrifice, but He was also giving a picture of the final sacrifice. The Lamb of God—Jesus. God’s promise for us and our loved ones today.

So often God sets examples in which He builds upon and uses as reference points. He knows how limited and doubting we can be in our faith, especially when it comes to praying long term for our unbelieving spouses. Thus He gives us connecting points to use to propel our hearts to belief. These are the points we need to return to continually to remember God’s promises. Again, look at Abraham and Sarah and how long they waited. Yet they had the memory of God’s visit and promise to return to again and again as a reminder. And God kept his promise.

For Abraham, God was truly enough—he trusted God completely and believed.

Praying and believing like Abraham,
Dineen

*A one-year reading plan can be found in the Upper Room and Our Journey (WalkInTheWord) devotionals. Many Bibles have a plan in the back index or you can use Google to find a plan that works best for you.