A wise man once said, “Faith isn’t faith until it is all you are holding onto.” While many walking this earth believe that religion is nothing more than a crutch to give hope to the hopeless, their belief takes more faith than a belief in God. Yet belief in God is nothing without acting upon that belief. James, the brother of Jesus, wrote:
You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!
James 2:19
When God created man, He placed inside each individual the knowledge of Him, and then when He created the heavens and the earth, He surrounded us with evidence that pointed to Himself. Life, for each of us, becomes that search to not only find God, but to know Him. Once we know Him, the desire grows to know Him more deeply. Yet it all comes back to that faith. All of us know what occurs when we rely upon others. People eventually will let us down, regardless of their desire to please. In the same manner, we let others down, and we also let ourselves down. Our decisions without God lead us down destructive paths, and when we get to a breaking point in that journey is when God enters the picture. When life is going smoothly, what percentage of people offer praises to the Lord? Certainly, the hotline to God starts ringing more frequently when our marriages fail; when our family members have serious illnesses; and when we lose our jobs and cannot pay the bills. But God desires to be our confidante in every situation, not just the difficult ones!
Abraham gave us an example of faith in action. At the age of 75, God promised him that he would have a son, and through that son, God would multiply Abraham’s descendants exceedingly. Yet Abraham hit a speed bump in the road when he began to wonder how God could provide a child through the loins of a senior citizen. Though Abraham’s wife Sarah was 10 years younger, how could she become pregnant, after remaining barren throughout her youth? At Sarah’s suggestion, Abraham slept with her Egyptian nurse, Hagar. With Abraham well-advanced in years, likely in his mid to late eighties, he fathered Ishmael.
Yet this was not the child to continue the line of the Jews, as God had promised. Instead, God also multiplied Ishmael’s descendants exceedingly. In fact, the Arabs that have come from Ishmael, and Abraham, greatly outnumber the Jews, and to this day, seek to kill the Jews. God’s plan remained in place, though it conflicted man’s understanding of what was possible with the Lord’s miraculous hand. At the age of 100, Abraham fathered Isaac, with his 90-year-old, barren wife, Sarah. Years later, God asked Abraham to sacrifice that son upon an altar!
That was the moment when Abraham understood that he was holding onto God and only God. When works go hand-in-hand with faith, that faith springs to life. Abraham trusted God’s request, without knowing God’s reason or asking why God would request this act of obedience. Because God never had let Abraham down, he trusted that God was going to perform another miracle. Of course, He did! At the last moment, God provided a substitute sacrifice in the place of Isaac, an unblemished, male ram, and just as promised, God blessed the descendants of Isaac exceedingly. By faith, Abraham exhibited his trust in God.
5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
Galatians 3:5-9
While Abraham’s blood may not run through our veins, we are in the same family of God. Just like Abraham, without reaching the end of ourselves, we cannot find the beginning of God. Our God is the only god, not limited by man-made laws or people. He can perform the greatest miracles without straining. Remember, He breathed the world into existence. There is nothing so great that He cannot accomplish it or so small that He does not notice it. Let your faith in God affect every aspect of your life, and let that faith speak loudly to a deaf world, which is crying out in its pain for help.
4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” 5 Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
Genesis 15:4-6
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