Back to the future...2 - Abraham

“By faith Abraham when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went even though He did not know where he was going.”  Heb.11:8. NIV

Abram wished to be obedient and found himself in Canaan, a stranger in a foreign land. When Lot and he parted God told Abram to lift up his eyes look in every direction and all the land he could see (above picture) God was giving to him and his offspring throughout the generations. God has plans and a future for all of us, but I sense He is saying, ‘before I can take you into your future you must consider your past’.  I see that as appreciating the privilege of being adopted into God’s family and understanding the benefits that affords us. (Eph.1)

After that promise Abram settled, prospered and expected to have a family.  With the passing years when the promised son wasn’t conceived, his faith wavered as he grew old, and like us he questioned if he’d really heard God?  Until Sarah had an idea to help God out!  Eventually both his sons were born in that promised land, both received the Father God’s blessing, and both would become the father of nations.  God cares for all those He created, but He only ordained Isaac to receive his father’s blessing and receive all he possessed.  Although God's desire is to bless us, there are times our mistakes have long term effects.

I’m still learning not to help God out.  I realise it’s His graciousness when the doors I open, He closes!  And throughout the years the Lord reassures me, that despite my age, my body beginning to shrivel and the years of ploughing up the ground, the day will come when the seeded promise will germinate and come to birth.  Could it be the longer we exercise our faith and wait for the promise the greater the blessing and outcome? 

I’d suggest that Ishmael had a very different view of God than Isaac.  Did he see God as hard hearted when he was rejected, lost his home and the family he considered his? Did over the years of his life a seed bitterness germinate in Ishmael’s life and develop in the generations that came from him, bringing their need to rule and make war? The Bible says Ishmael’s descendants lived on the border of Egypt ‘and lived in hostility towards all their brothers’. Yet it is heartening to read, when at 175 Abraham died.  “Isaac and Ishmael came together to bury him…’

How easy it is for us to compare ourselves to others, feel hard done by, under-valued, invisible.  Many people live in a constant state of depression often feeding off the negativity of others.   Yet God promises if we believe in Him, He will never leave or forsake us.  I mistakenly thought every Christian spent an hour a day with the Lord in worship, prayer and reading the Bible.  But  I also saw a faith like Abraham’s comes from a stable relationship with the Lord which I found difficult at first, but today is such a joy.  I feel bereft on those days when life takes over, but always like to acknowledge the Lord each day saying, “Good morning, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” 

                                                                                                                   Ruth Johnson