So, we stopped singing the songs. We are silent long enough to hear the voice of God speak to us. God is calling us into a place we have never been before, and to be honest, it is both crazy and senseless, naturally, the flesh will cause you to wonder, come on, this absolutely makes no sense, and does God really expect me to obey?

The Faith of Abraham

God has a way of testing our faith in Him. You see, when we sing songs of worship and surrender to God with our lips, He actually tests those exact words with our hearts. So, the same God that tested Abraham will also test you. When I read the story of Abraham I thought, wow! What a faith! God says; “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” – Genesis 12:1. In my mind I thought, Abraham had to leave everything he knew and loved to go to a place that he did not know? Why! How many of us would do that? How many questions would God need to answer before we moved? Where am I going? Can I leave next week and not today? Can I bring a friend? Will there be wifi? Just how long do I have to stay? Today, I realized that we all want Abraham’s blessing but we don’t have Abraham’s discipline. I don’t know how long Abraham was walking with God prior to this command, I don’t know if time had allowed him to build a relationship with God but all I see is that God spoke and He moved. Without a question, without a doubt, without a murmur. He left all he had and charged into the unknown.

I honestly cannot imagine a command like that, truth is, I can hardly move away from my phone sometimes much less my family. But as I read Abraham’s journey I realized that Abraham trusted in something greater than the command, He trusted the commander, and because of one man’s obedience, our lives changed forever. We are the heirs who benefited from the promise God gave to Abraham. “…And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.” – Genesis 22:18 (NLT)

It’s a trust issue

I remember when I would pray and say to God, I want to be called your friend like Abraham and I want to have a relationship with you like Moses, and I would go on and on. But after truly examining the life of Abraham, I thought well, maybe I should just shut up. I knew in my heart that I wasn’t at that place where I would literally give up everything for Him. I prayed the words, but my heart wasn’t ready for the command.

So I began to question Abraham’s journey, what made Abraham leave his father, his land and all he knew for God. The answer was clear, He trusted Him. Can you imagine if a stranger came and told us to move from our home to a place they would show us? Or if we told someone we obeyed the instruction of a stranger who told us to move, leave our family and go to a place they would show us? Sounds crazy, right?

The difference is trust. It was revealed to me through the Holy Spirit, that Abraham had to have known God before this command; He must have had an intimate relationship with God, because he trusted Him.  No one trusts someone they do not know. Trust is built over time through experience.

At the core of a disobedient heart is a lack of trust in God. We don’t know Him, that’s why we don’t trust Him, because we simply cannot and will not trust someone we do not know. Wow! What a hard truth that is, even for me. It’s so funny because in all this I realized that friendship with God which I was fervently praying for is a promise that was already given to me in the New Testament. But as with any friendship, its contingent on me doing my part, Jesus says, in John 15:14, “you are my friends if you do what I command.” At the heart of a friendship with God is our obedience to Him.

So beyond the elaborate prayers, the singing and the repetition, like me, I believe at the heart of every disobedient action is a trust issue. We need a heart to heart with God, where no music is on, we’re not trying to impress Him or compliment Him but we are real with Him. For me, I must admit, trusting God did not come first nature because I was so used to having my own way and getting what I wanted, when I wanted it. Trusting God to me meant giving that up, I had to submit to His ways which seemed hard. There was also a fear that He wouldn’t come through for me, maybe He would break His promises like the previous men in my life did and disappoint me. All of this really exposed the truth about my relationship with God. I simply did not know Him.

I believe above all else, God wants us to be truthful and honest with yourselves but most importantly with Him. He wants to heal us, but, for us to be healed, we must admit that we are ill. At the beginning of this blog I had no idea what the Lord wanted to say today about obedience. I thought maybe it was a follow up to the previous post, but as He poured in me I realized, Obedience blog post number 1, was because He wanted us to stop singing the lies, today’s post is because He wants to provide therapy to our hearts.

God does not want our obedience by force; it gives Him great joy for us to come to Him freely, obedience is an act of our own free will. It truly shows the depth of His love for us, so like me, I hope you will have a heart to heart with your Eternal Father.

 Will you choose to trust Him?