TRUST

We went through the book of Genesis in church awhile back.  One of the things we talked about was Eve’s response to Satan’s temptation with the apple.  Thinking about it, it seems to me that the bottom line for Eve was trust.  She didn’t trust that what God said was absolute truth.

Skipping ahead, that was also Noah’s temptation.   And Abraham’s.  I would guess that Abraham had been in “high protective mode” all of Isaac’s life.  After all, he had waited 80 or more  years for this promised child - who finally came when Abraham was 100 years old!  He would take no chances.  A contingent of servants probably followed Isaac everywhere, making sure this answer to a lifetime of prayers was kept safe.  For God to ask such a thing must have been the shock of Abraham’s life.  So he was faced with the question….”Do I trust that what God told me earlier is truth????”   Or Not???

Abraham had already gone through a number of other “trust tests”(paraphrased or implied):
(1)“Leave your country and go to a far place.  Just start walking.  I’ll tell you when to stop.”  PASS 
(2)“Trust me in Egypt with your life.”  FAIL   
(3)“Trust me that I will use you to defeat Lot’s capturerers, but don’t take bounty, lest they not realize I made you rich.” PASS  
(4)“Trust me for your life in Gerar.”  FAIL 
(5)“Trust that I will keep the Promise, without any help from you and Sarah manipulating the circumstances.”  FAIL

Now, it was, “Trust me for the Promise.  Trust me EVEN IN ISAAC’S DEATH.”

Leaving all of his natural instinct behind, literally laying his great love and hope on the altar, ABRAHAM CHOSE TO TRUST GOD AND OBEY.

Ever since Adam and Eve pulled the foundation stone out of their awesome relationship of trust and love with Him, God has been desiring men and women to again walk with Him in trust.  He found it in Abraham and in Noah….and in multitudes of Christians down through the ages who have chosen to trust GOD over circumstances, suffering, persecution, desires, hopes, trials, fears.

And He looks for it in me.  Every time I don’t listen to the Holy Spirit speaking to me, I’m doing the same thing as Eve.  I’m telling God that I don’t trust that what He wants me to do (or not do) is the best choice or will meet my need of the moment (or what I “think” my need of the moment is.)  I let fear or desire or protectiveness or “whatever” rule….because I think my logic is better than God’s.  So I choose to disobey.  And another stone falls out of the bedrock of trust that our love relationship is built on.

But, thankfully, God keeps offering me another stone!