“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD.” Jeremiah 17:7 ESV
For the second time this year, I’ve read Abraham’s story in the book of Genesis. There’s one part of his story that always gives me a moment of pause, and then I move to the next passage.
This time, my pause stretched longer. I jotted notes in my journal so that I could come back and think about it more. Today is the day, and I want to share my thoughts with you.
From early in his recorded story (Genesis 12), Abram demonstrated incredible faith in Jehovah God.
Abram was 75 years old when God spoke to him, instructed him to gather his belongings, leave his father’s (Terah) home, take his wife, Sarai, and head to a location that would be later disclosed.
God’s instructions: Abram, leave everything you know. Leave the life that you’ve built. And head into the unknown. That was an enormous ask!
God’s promise: He would make Abram a great nation. He would bless Abram and make his reputation great so that he could be a blessing to others. In fact, God told Abram that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. It was an enormous promise!
Scripture says, “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him.” Incredible faith, remarkable trust.
God led Abram to Canaan, eventually leading Abram towards the Negeb. Time passed, and famine came upon the land. So, Abram, Sarai, and all their belongings traveled to Egypt. There’s no mention of Abram talking to God about the famine. There’s no record of Abram asking God what to do.
Abram decided to relocate from the Land of Promise to the land of prosperity. Abram, did you ask God about the move?
Just before entering Egypt, Abram began to worry about his situation. He had a beautiful wife, and that could become a problem if the men of Egypt decided she should belong to one of them. Abram would be killed; Sarai would be taken along with the wealth and livestock that Abram had accumulated over the years.
So, Abram came up with a plan. He told Sarai to say that she was his sister, which she did. Abram, where’s the faith you displayed early in your story? There’s no record of Abram asking God what to do.
Eventually, the misrepresentation was uncovered. Pharaoh uncordially invited Abram, Sarai his wife, and all their belongings to exit Egypt immediately.
Scripture continues Abram’s story and God’s unending blessing and protection. In Genesis 15, God expanded greatly on His promise to Abram and reassured him that he would have a son.
God told Abram his offspring would be as many as the stars in the night sky. “And he believed the LORD, and He counted it to him as righteousness.” An astounding promise! And Abram believed. He trusted God to keep His word.
Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will act. Psalm 37:5 ESV
The following chapter (Ch.16) tells of Sarai’s impatience with the slow fulfillment of God’s promised child. She came up with a plan to speed the process along and took the plan to Abram. Abram listened and went along with the plan to have a baby by way of Sarai’s servant, Hagar.
Abram, did you check with God on this? Did you think God wasn’t going to take care of all the details involved in delivering the child He promised? Did you feel that you and Sarai needed to step in and take over?
After Ishmael was born, it appears that Abram thought the problem was solved. God’s promises would be fulfilled through Hagar’s son. Then, in Chapter 17, God appeared to Abram, reaffirmed His covenant of promise, changed Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah, and then told Abraham that Ishmael was not the promised son.
God told Abraham that Sarah would give birth to the promised son in a year’s time.
Shortly after, the LORD, accompanied by two angels, appeared again to Abraham to reaffirm the birth of a son to Sarah and to let him know the planned fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham asked God to save Sodom because of the righteous people who lived there; he hoped to save his nephew, Lot, and his family from death. In the end, there weren’t enough righteous people living in Sodom to prevent total destruction, but God saved Lot and his family. Lot’s wife made it out of the city, but one forbidden look back sealed her fate. Abraham trusted God and His goodness to save the righteous.
Another move took Abraham, Sarah, and all the rest to Gerar. Once again, Abraham decided it was safer to claim Sarah as his sister, rather than risk death because of her. Again, there’s no mention of talking to God about the situation. It worked once; surely the ruse would work again.
This time God revealed the deception to Abimelech, the king of Gerar, who had taken Sarah into his palace as one of his wives. Abraham’s feeble attempt to explain the lie revealed his lack of faith. Faithful God protected untrusting Abraham, and He protected Sarah during her time in the palace.
Months later, the promised son, Isaac, was born, and he was deeply loved by his father.
Isaac was most likely a young teen when God tested Abraham’s faith and trust. “Abraham, take your beloved son. This son you have waited for so long; take him to the mountain and give him back to me. Sacrifice your son on the altar.” (my paraphrase)
What? The promised son was to be sacrificed? What plan would Abraham hatch to get out of this situation?
The answer. None.
Abraham’s faith had grown over the years. The past faith tests were minor compared to this. Kill your promised son on an altar. But Abraham’s faith didn’t waver. He had seen God’s faithfulness repeatedly despite his own failings. Abraham finally realized God can be trusted in all things. If He makes a promise, He will keep it.
God had told Abraham that his promised son, Isaac, would be the carrier of God’s Covenant to the coming generations. Abraham didn’t know how God planned to do it, but he trusted that God would keep His word. And indeed, He did! (Genesis 22)
In Hebrews 11, dubbed the “Faith Hall of Fame,” Abraham’s faith story is prominently mentioned among other heroes of the faith. The final verse of Hebrews 11 says it all: “Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.” Like Abraham, none of the heroes of the faith were perfect, but they learned to trust God.
As I think on Abraham’s story, it feels so familiar. Certainly not in the epic sense that Abraham’s was, but in the sense that Abraham was human. And even though he trusted God in the big-picture things, in the day-to-day decisions Abraham did exactly what we do—or at least what I do.
He tried to control and solve the situation himself. He didn’t take the smaller issues to God – he thought he could handle the little issues. And every time he did, it never worked out the way that he planned.
We run to God with the big issues in our lives, the major crises, the devastating medical diagnoses, an imploding financial disaster—the BIG problems.
We trust God with our eternal salvation. We believe that He has a home prepared for His children, and one day we will see Him face to face and rejoice in His presence ever more.
But we hesitate to bother God with the little things, the mundane daily needs. Sometimes, we don’t even think about asking because we’re so used to taking care of the day-to-day ourselves.
When we try to handle it all ourselves, we are not being respectful to the God who knows the number of hairs on our head and the number of breaths we will take before that last breath. He cares about every detail of our lives. Every detail! The big and the little.
Friend, we take on unnecessary worries and anxieties because we think we must solve our issues on our own. We constantly deal with “being overwhelmed” because we’re afraid to say no or because we think we can do it all.
We don’t take it to God first. We wait until our little problem has grown to gigantic proportions.
We must learn to trust God in everything – everything. Even in the littles!
If even a great man of faith like Abraham can create bigger problems for himself by not going first to God, then certainly, we should not try to solve life’s issues without first talking with the One who holds the answer to all of life’s questions, problems, and situations, big or little.
He is the One who knows you best and loves you most.
God is trustworthy in the “big” and in the “littles.”
“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation.” Isaiah 12:2 ESV