Day 26

God gives us a promise & then tests our faith in that promise..
How we respond to God’s test will show Him that either we are ready or not for His dream for our lives – so do not give up..
God tested Abraham. Abraham was to be the one through whom all nations would be blessed, and God had to know if he was ready to be the father of faith. We don’t like the idea of putting people we love to the test, but the Bible understands that God has to test us for our own spiritual growth..
God tested Abraham in order that their relationship could develop. It was not some kind of game with God. God really wanted to know if Abraham could trust him absolutely, and there was no way that He could find that out until Abraham was placed in a situation in which he had nothing to depend on but God’s promise..
Sometimes God has to test us to allow our relationship to move to the next level. If everything stayed smooth, if everything was blessing, if there was no room for doubt, we would never learn to trust God absolutely. God really wants to know if we will trust Him..
Remember that this struggle will build our stamina, deepen our patience, & increase our resilience (the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties)..
God did not ask Abraham to do anything that God Himself would not do..
When God the Father was ready to sacrifice His Son whom He loved, His only Son, there was no angel there to stay His hand. There was no human voice telling Him to stop..
God did everything necessary to keep His promise that He would make Abraham a blessing to all the nations..
Even at the cost of His own Son, God kept His promise. That is how great His love is. That is why, even in the midst of a test that seems impossibly harsh or even absurd, we can trust in His promise of life..
“With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for Him is a waste of time or effort.….”(1 Corinthians 15:58‬)