An In Spite of Faith

I'm just going to say God HANDLES the kid. I wrote a poem this morning and referenced different scriptures about faith and trusting God and believing Him and then...
The sermon is below. Pastor used some of the same scriptures and talked about the same topic as my poem.
He handles me....that's one of the ways I know that I know Him and that He's actively watching me :-)

Genesis 22:1-3

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. 

Cone, one of the great Black theologians, encountered a crisis with his faith because he was concerned with the fact that many Christians were so focused to heaven that they were not useful on Earth. He wondered wether Christianity was so distorted that it couldn't be useful? He saw the oppressed and marginalized folks and thought "Why isn't the church doing more for the least of these?"

Cone realized that that the cries of the oppressed were not antithetical to our faith but the central expression of our religion. The issue was with the followers of Christ who had become insensitive to the cause of the downtrodden. He concluded that God was still worthy of glory and honor and worship. 

Any one can have a "because of" faith. They can thank God for all the things you can see, drive, and live in. The real measure of your faith is whether you can bless God and believe Him "in spite of." 

"Because of" faith isn't biblical because its based on what you can see. If faith from Hebrews cannot be seen, then "in spite of" faith is biblical faith.

Let me just pause this right here and just say YES! This is my life. My life is all about "in spite of" faith. For every one who looks at the situation between me and my love I say "faith is not what you can see but what you believe when you can't." I still believe because faith isn't about sight. I know what I know and I believe it whether or not you do.

Abraham faces one of the greatest tests of faith recorded in the bible. God commanded him to sacrifice his promised son. He chose to believe God. 

He was able to trust God despite his failures. 

Abraham lied about Sarah twice because he didn't trust God to protect him.
He doubted God's promise of a son and had a child with Haggar.
He asked God if Ishmael would do as his heir.
It was after these things that God came again to Abraham. God still had a purpose for him. God promised him in Genesis 12:2 and 3 that 

“I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.[a]
3 I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.”[b]

Our failings aren't final. They don't negate the promises of God. If God promised it, you can trust Him according to His Word.

Now I've been wrestling a lot with what to do about this girl who wants to build something. Do you know that today she asked if we could write down things we're thankful for over the next year and keep them in a mason jar for next New Years?
Like whoa.
She's for real with it.
And I've wrestled with wether or not to try this thing with her and right here is my answer! I wouldn't call being with her a failing but I will say that doing so doesn't change what God promised me or my belief in it. Maybe she's here to teach me something....I don't know but what I do know is that spending time with her doesn't nullify my promise from God. 

Isaiah 55:11 says His word won't return void.
Its His promises that should keep you when your faith is weary. 

If you wonder how peace can come in the middle of your storm, its the promises of the Word of God that produce it.

He trusted God despite his doubts.

He trusted God in the face of uncertainty. Abraham had to have thoughts...
To sacrifice my son? Really?
Why would God give me this son only to take him away?
What about the promises of blessing my lineage?
If I sacrifice my son, all the promises I've been made through my son won't come to pass? He must have questioned God's command BUT he still trusted God.

When we are faced with situations that defy our understanding, we have to learn how to do what Proverbs 3:5-6 says

Trust in the Lord with all your heart 
and lean not on your own understanding; 
in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight.

Another scripture I look to when its really tough. I have to remember that relying on my own thinking and planning didn't work. I've got to fully rely on God and give Him my hearts desires and trust that He'll do what's best for me. <--Sometimes I'm doing that real faithfully but sometimes I'm not. But who God is always brings me comfort, even on a bad day.

Hebrews 11:19

Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

What mattered is not God's method but who He is. He's able to do the impossible. He can do whatever He says he's going to do.

God is too wise to be mistaken and too good to be unkind. When you can't trace His hand, trust His heart. 

When and how may not be things you can understand but He will work it out. You've got to Trust that God is who He says He is.

God is.

Faith isn't the absence of doubt. Its the continuing to follow in the midst of doubt.
Faith isn't the absence of questions its trusting when you have them. 

Abraham trusted God in the midst of trials.

He's regarded as the father of faith. This is one of his most difficult seasons. It was probably tempting for him to justify disobeying God this one time. You ever try and rationalize going against God?

I have. I most definitely have. Before I got this first scripture about how God can use you even when you're failing I was seriously considering telling this new girl to go away. I'm still considering it but there is a measure of comfort in knowing that the promises of God and the failing of my humanity to wait on what I know He's got for me aren't incompatible. And also, He could be saying to me "she's not going to choose you even if you're the one I have for her so here is someone who will choose you" because the new girl? She's interested. And she's smart and playful and sweet and she's worked through all her issues with Jesus and homosexuality. In many ways she's where I wanted my love to be. She just isn't the one I love.

Glass is only malleable when its under heat and pressure. Ever considered that God might turn up the heat and pressure in your life and He's doing it because He's trying to make and fashion you into something in his mind. <--Its toasty over here despite that my heat hasn't been turned on this winter. What He wants me to be I don't know but I'm teachable and moldable. 

Trials may be God working and doing something on your behalf. 

Ephesians 3:20

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

You can trust God because the power is on the inside of you.
So according to His power that works in me, I can do more than I can think or imagine? Yea....two doctorates is more than I could think or imagine but you know...the seed was planted when I was 15 and it was watered and watered so it shouldn't be a surprise. two doctorates....my God.

Romans 8:28

 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[i] have been called according to his purpose.

In the midst of your trial you can trust God because they are working for your good. I'm better because of the trials I've been through. I'm gentler, kinder, softer, more forgiving, more understanding, I'm a better friend, I'm more compassionate, and I'm going to be a better doctor because the path hasn't been straight or smooth but crooked and rough. And in the path being difficult, I've been made more Christ-like.  

Because Abraham trusted God despite all these things, that God revealed Himself in a new way. 

Abraham is ultimately able to sacrifice the ram. Abraham named that place "The Lord Will Provide." If you trust God in a new way, He'll reveal Himself in a new way.

I'm learning to trust God in a new way. I've trusted Him for so long to be alone and to wait for my love but I'm going to trust that this new person is God's will too. What her purpose will be I don't know but this sermon...my goodness. I needed this. I needed His Word to make a decision.

He's always on time.

My "in spite of" faith is renewed.
Lets do this 2017!