"By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. "
Hebrews 11:17
RIGHT, LORD!
Read It: Genesis 22:1-2; Hebrews 11:17; James 2:14 o far in our study of faith we've considered the necessity and the anticipation ipation of faith. This week let's talk about the confidence of faith. Faith has about it a sense of confidence that's embedded in its definition: "assurance ance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (v 1). The message I want to plant in your heart this week is this: Christians who live by faith exercise confidence in God's promises. The essence of the faith life is that you believe what God says enough to stake a claim on it and obey it. Now you knew we weren't going to get far into any discussion of faith without running into Abraham. And the Abraham story we've got this week is one that the Bible recognizes as one of the greatest expressions of faith ever recorded: Abraham's offering of Isaac. It's a rich saga of faith, because Abraham shows us here what it means to live by faith. It's important to remember that Genesis 22 is not when Abraham gets saved, to use New Testament terminology. He expressed his faith back in Genesis 12, many years earlier. So what we have here is a way of life-a living, decision-making kind of faith in motion. It is not enough to rest on what you did with God ten years ago. Some of us have great deja vu stories. We're still talking about how things used to be. But we need an "I Am" kind of God, a God who works in the present tense. That's why you ought to underline the word tested in today's verse.
Abraham's faith was a present reality that would stand by him in the great test God was about to send his way. Think about it. There's one sure way you can know whether you really believe what you think you believe, say you believe, and ought to believe. Let God put your faith to the test. And don't worry-He will. How will God test you this week? I don't know, but that's not the issue. The issue is, how will you respond? Pray that God will enable you to pass His faith test. Think About It True faith demonstrates confidence in God in the time of testing. It's easy to trust when everything is cool.
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