Category: following Jesus

Little Pieces of Obedience

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“It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, 18 even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.”[ 19 Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.”

Hebrews 11:17-19, NLT

The faith of Abraham is understood by believers everywhere. This simple man followed God to a obscure mountain in Judea. He came fervently, and yet logically to the command of the Lord. Abraham’s confident assurance would carry him to Mt. Moriah were he would sacrifice his son. He would prefigure God’s own sacrifice of Jesus Christ, His only Son.

There were many steps Abraham had to take: the knife, the rope, the firewood, the donkey. There was a dozen details to arrange. Abraham would have had to plan ahead of time to prepare. I’m relatively certain he had ample time to consider what he was doing. The enormity of it all would’ve been staggering.

Hebrews reveals that ‘faith’ was what enabled Abraham. It was faith followed by a dozen little acts of obedience that strengthened him to follow God’s instructions. Abraham would obey God, through faith, by doing many little things. All would lead up to the ‘big thing,’ the offering up of his only son.

Heavy doors swing on small hinges.

I believe that no act is too small. Tiny actions make for big ones. It seems that several times during our daily grind we face little choices that often determine a far greater meaning. I’ve been told that there are flowers in alpine valleys that no man will ever see. Their sole beauty is visible only to God. Obedience is often like this. But the Lord knows.

God meets every act of obedience to Him with a smiling grace.

Hebrews 11 is known as the believer’s ‘hall of fame’. In its verses we’re pounded by the idea that the faith is visible only through obedience. What we do is as significant as what we believe. It has always been so.

“…but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”

Daniel 11:32, NKJV

A little obedience prepares us for bigger ones. If we won’t obey in the small ones, how will we in the big ones? The prophet Daniel spoke of a remnant that would do astonishing things, and that the core of their fame would come from knowing God. This is faith made visible. The ‘great exploits’ spring out of faith in a strong God. To be regarded in this way would be wonderful, but faith needs those little acts of obedience to be able to do the great ones. 

We must reclaim the reality that the details of our lives are not trivial.

Sin Destroys People that God Loves

Being a sinner does not mean that God doesn’t love you; rather I believe God loves you even more. This is not logical or rational. But His agape love for you goes beyond what is acceptable or sensible.

The Father runs to you. “And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20.)

Please don’t doubt, but just believe.

“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

Romans 5:8

Let Him see your repentance, that which fully understand the sin which has been destroying you. For some of this, we know. Nobody needs to convince us.

“Because salvation is by grace through faith, I believe that among the countless number of people standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands (see Revelation 7:9),

I shall see the prostitute from the Kit-Kat Ranch in Carson City, Nevada, who tearfully told me that she could find no other employment to support her two-year-old son. I shall see the woman who had an abortion and is haunted by guilt and remorse but did the best she could face with grueling alternatives; the businessman besieged with debt who sold his integrity in a series of desperate transactions; the insecure clergyman addicted to being liked, who never challenged his people from the pulpit and longed for unconditional love; the sexually abused teen molested by his father and now selling his body on the street, who, as he falls asleep each night after his last ‘trick’, whispers the name of the unknown God he learned about in Sunday school.

‘But how?’ We ask.

Then the voice says, ‘They have washed their robes and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’

There they are. There we are – the multitude who so wanted to be faithful, who at times got defeated, soiled by life, and bested by trials, wearing the bloodied garments of life’s tribulations, but through it all clung to faith.

My friends, if this is not good news to you, you have never understood the gospel of grace.”

Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

Please consider this that He spoken to us.

“He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector…’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’”

Luke 18:9-10, 13, ESV

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”

C.S. Lewis

Not Knowing Why

Joni Eeareckson Tada

I think one of the hardest parts of suffering is not knowing why.  

Especially when you’ve prayed for relief, you’ve waited, and nothing seems to change. 

And sometimes it goes on for years. 

It’s easy to speak about God’s purposes in suffering when you’re not the one going through it. It’s another thing entirely when you’re exhausted, hurting, and struggling to make it through another day. 

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:17.  “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” (ESV) 

Paul wasn’t at all minimizing suffering. This was a man who had been beaten, persecuted, and brought to the point of despairing of life itself.  But he understood something we can so easily lose sight of. 

Our suffering isn’t simply something we endure until we get to heaven.  God is always accomplishing something through it, even when we cannot see what that is. 

I thank God for the real life testimonies of the saints who have gone before us, and those who are faithfully enduring suffering even now. 

There is something so encouraging about seeing how God has sustained His people through unimaginable sorrow and used their suffering for good, not only in their own lives, but to strengthen the faith of others. That is such a beautiful confirmation of this truth. 

Circumstances do not always change. Pain is not always removed. But God remains faithful. 

Will you trust Him even when He doesn’t give the relief you’ve been praying for? We don’t have to pretend suffering doesn’t hurt. We don’t have to understand everything God is doing. 

But we do have to believe what He has told us. 

Not one moment of suffering in the life of a believer is meaningless. The same God who did not waste the suffering of His own Son will not waste the suffering of those who belong to Him. 

And one day, the afflictions that seem so heavy now will be outweighed by an eternal glory beyond anything we can comprehend. 

Until then, we walk by faith, not by sight.

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Wheels for the World®

Hand-delivering wheelchairs and Bibles to people with disabilities in developing countries.

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God’s Fire is Waiting for You

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“Some Christians are called to endure a disproportionate amount of suffering. Such Christians are a spectacle of grace to the church, like flaming bushes unconsumed, and cause us to ask, like Moses: ‘Why is this bush not burned up?’

The strength and stability of these believers can be explained only by the miracle of God’s sustaining grace. The God who sustains Christians in unceasing pain is the same God — with the same grace — who sustains me in my smaller sufferings. We marvel at God’s persevering grace and grow in our confidence in Him as He governs our lives.”

— John Newton, 1725-1807, Author of “Amazing Grace”

God has said that He protects and sustains every born again believer. His personal honor is at stake. Knowing this, we can overcome religious fear and anxiety which can be crippling. We must constantly look in the Word and combine the promises with saving faith. 

Each believer must have an experience with God. Very often this will mean we will be barefoot and standing before our own burning bush. It’s in this holy place we see His love and grace, toward us and toward other people. What He reveals will change the trajectory of our life.

Do you really want to be changed? Your own “bush” is waiting for you. God is waiting as well. 

“The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.”

Exodus 3:2, NASB

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