Perhaps you can remember hearing your spouse or someone else in your family say: “Have faith.” What do they mean by that? Well, if they are God-fearing people, then the statement more than likely is coming from this perspective: “Have faith in God.” Why is it so important for us to be constantly putting our faith in God? Many people today would not put any stock into the idea that God even exists. So, how then can I trust Him? How can I put all of my hopes, needs, desires, and care upon Him? Faith.
When we define the word faith, we cannot find a better definition than Hebrews 11:1. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” I have never been to the moon, but I have seen the evidence that the moon exists. Or better yet, I have never seen my brain, but I believe that it is inside my head. I know and believe each of these things, not because I have handled them personally with my hands, and in some cases not that I have even laid eyes upon them (brain), but because I have seen the evidence.
Abraham was this way. Hebrews chapter eleven discusses all the different acts of faith, and verses seventeen through nineteen give us incredible information: “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called,’ concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.”
This is, of course, in reference to the place in Genesis where God had instructed Abraham to kill the son that had been promised to him (Genesis 22:2). Abraham did not even hesitate, according to the text. He simply gathered the things necessary for a sacrifice, called Isaac and headed out to kill the son that he loved (Genesis 22:3). If one studies the previous twenty-one chapters of Genesis, they will not find one time where the Lord raised up anyone who died.
So, how then could Abraham have known that God would raise up Isaac? Was this arrogance? Did Abraham think that he was so vital to God that there would be no possible way God would mistreat him? No. Abraham knew that God had made a promise to give him a son, which the Lord did. He also knew that God was not going to break the promise that was made to him because all nations were to be blessed through Isaac.
Our world today is not filled with commands from God to go and kill our children. Yet, could it be said that our faith is worse than Abraham’s? How often in the last week have you asked: “How could God do this to me? How could He expect me to do everything that the Bible says?” Perhaps the problem today is that we have seemingly forgotten our Lord, and because of that, we no longer have faith that He will keep His word? It is quite the opposite: “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” (Hebrews 13:5)
Have faith.