Best of Blogs #17

If Abraham Said No, originally posted 2/17/08. Interestingly I was just talking with a friend about this today, not realizing it was lined up to be my blog tonight! This blog is so poignant to me right now.

I was thinking the other day, as I listened to CD's of Phil Vischer sharing his story...what if Abraham had said no?

What if, when God called him to put Isaac on the altar, Abraham HADN'T trusted that God would provide another sacrifice, and wasn't willing to take that chance with his only son?

Would God have taken Isaac away? Abraham didn't have to kill Isaac...it turned out God was just testing him to see what he really loved more...so what if Abraham had failed the test? What if Abraham had shown that he loved Isaac more than God?

I wonder if God would have just taken Isaac himself and picked someone else to begin the line of chosen people. I don't know...maybe He wouldn't have because He made a promise to Abraham. So maybe He would have kept that promise. But God hasn't made any promises that specific to me. So if I put something before Him - even if it's a godly activity or a noble goal - maybe He'd just take it away and choose someone else.

Phil was talking about dreams and about how our dreams have to be less important to us than God is. Whatever God calls us to do, however He is using us...it's all less important to God than our relationship with Him.

At first that sounds selfish. God cares more about my relationship with Him than about all these other people whose lives I could be changing? But that's just the attitude that we shouldn't have. God can change those lives with or without our help. He doesn't care more about us than He cares about the other people, but He does care more about us than how He is using us in the lives of other people.

Which brings me to this...I'm at a point in my life where I don't feel like I'm doing very much. I've even blogged about that within the past couple months, about how this world is so broken and I want to do more to change it.

But really, the brokenness of this world is so much bigger than me and I have to trust God to take care of it. And if He uses me, that's awesome...but in the mean time, I need to trust that whether or not I can see the difference I am making, or whether or not I am making a difference at all, God cares more about my relationship with Him than any of that.

Phil talked about how Noah literally saved the world. He gathered up all those animals and started things clean when God called him to. And that sounds awesome, but Phil observed that Noah was 500 years old when God called him to build the ark. And in the mean time, Noah wasn't building helicopters or rafts or in any way trying to force God to use him for something great. He was just walking with God. That's what the Bible says.

I need to believe that if I'm walking with God, putting Him before any of my dreams (however noble and godly they may be), that He will call me to do exactly what He wants me to do, when He wants me to do it. And if I'm really walking with Him, I'll be ready. Even if I have to wait until I'm 500 years old.