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Light Beams of Mercy in the Darkness of Judgment

God Abounds in Love

Even in the midst of Sodom and Gomorrah’s arrogant indifference to God’s expressed command, God still found a way to express his mercy. He spared Lot’s family because he was merciful. He still is. He always will be. Even up to the moment of the final judgment, God will be looking for even the slightest opening to insert his undeserved mercy to sinners deserving of Divine wrath.

The Journey // Focus: Genesis 19:16, 29

When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city, for the Lord was merciful… But God had listened to Abraham’s request and kept Lot safe, removing him from the disaster that engulfed the cities on the plain.

Thank God for his mercy!

Even in the midst of the dark and depressing reality of righteous judgment, we always find light beams of God’s loving-kindness. To the very end, God is looking for ways to demonstrate mercy and grace to wayward sinners, deserving of Divine wrath for their flagrant disregard of the Law of God. God is a seeking, forgiving, restoring Creator—it is his nature; he just can’t help himself.

In Genesis 19, one of the darkest chapters in the Bible, as the fires of judgment are falling on Sodom and Gomorrah for their flagrant disregard of God’s moral law, the angel of the Lord grabs the procrastinating family of Lot by the hands and pulls them to safety. Why? Genesis 19:16 says it was because, “the Lord was merciful.”

Think about that: in the midst of Sodom and Gomorrah’s arrogant indifference of God’s commands, even after they had been warned to flee the coming judgment, God still found a way to express his mercy.

God was merciful. He still is. He always will be. Even up to the moment of the ultimate and final judgment, God will be looking for even the slightest opening to insert his mercy to sinners deserving of Divine wrath.

God is merciful. He just can’t help himself. When there is a chance, he will pursue the sinner with reckless abandon that he might shower them with loving-kindness—undeserved mercy and unmerited grace. You might even say that God is recklessly merciful. While Divine justice and the final judgment that it requires will not be withheld forever, for God would not be just if he did, he will go way out of his way, way beyond the call of duty, to spare the sinner. Scripture bears that out, of course:

The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. (2 Peter 3:9)

Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead. Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish. (Joel 2:13)

Where is another God like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his special people? You will not stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing unfailing love. (Micah 7:18)

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:4-5)

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. (Psalm 103:8)

God was, is and forever shall be, great in mercy and abounding in love. That is true for you—thank God.

But don’t forget, that can be true for those you love because of you. For at the end of this sad story of judgment we find that those light beams of mercy that shined upon Lot’s undeserving family were the result of Abraham’s intercession before a merciful God looking for a cause to pardon the guilty. Genesis 19:29 says, “But God had listened to Abraham’s request and kept Lot safe, removing him from the disaster that engulfed the cities on the plain.”

Don’t forget to embrace God’s mercy in your life today—or any day. But just as importantly, don’t forget to ask God to extend that same mercy to the people He has put in your life who may be in danger of Divine judgment.

Thank God for a Creator who delights to show mercy!

Going Deeper: Do you need mercy? That is God’s specialty, so ask him. And don’t forget to live your life thereafter as one long thank you to God for his undeserved loving-kindness. Likewise, don’t forget to ask God for his mercy on behalf of the people he has placed in your life. Perhaps he has placed them there for that very purpose.

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Merciful Judgment

Help Wanted: Doorman for God's Mercy

God invited Abraham to intercede on behalf of the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah as a perpetual reminder that his desire is always mercy first, judgment last. It also reminds us that he invites our intercession for the evil cities in which we live as well. In fact, he is counting on us to stand in the gap on their behalf. Jesus said, “You are the world’s seasoning, to make it tolerable. If you lose your flavor, what will happen to the world?” The truth is, the darkness of our world will grow darker, and people only will grow in their hatred of God’s justice. But don’t forget: the door for his mercy remains open. And we are the doormen for that mercy. If we don’t or won’t embrace that calling, our world has no hope.

The Journey // Focus: Genesis 18:20-25

So the Lord told Abraham, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know…” Then Abraham approached the Lord and said, “Will you sweep away both the righteous and the wicked? Suppose you find fifty righteous people living there in the city—will you still sweep it away and not spare it for their sakes? Surely you wouldn’t do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked. Why, you would be treating the righteous and the wicked exactly the same! Surely you wouldn’t do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”

What was so bad about Sodom that would lead God to utterly annihilate an entire city? Genesis 18:18 tells us: it was a brazen and willful disregard of God’s design for human sexuality: “Their sin is so flagrant.”

What was the sexual sin? In the next chapter, Genesis 19:5, we find that it was homosexuality and sexual violence. Now, in my opinion, it is not the sin, but its brazenness that draws God’s judgment. Isaiah 3:9 (HCSB) says,

The look on their faces testifies against them; like Sodom, they flaunt their sin. They don’t conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought evil on themselves.

Sin, no matter what it is, is always problematic. But where you have human beings giving God the middle finger, belligerently telling their Creator, putting it nicely, to “bug off,” judgment will come! It may be slow in coming—thankfully—but it will be sure.

However, that is not the main point of this story—though some Christians, unfortunately, have tried to make it the main point. The main thing here is a greater revelation of God’s nature as well as a clearer picture of our covenant calling to be a blessing to the world. This is what the Sodom and Gomorrah narrative reveals about our Creator:

First, we learn that God always initiates and invites. The very first thing we see in Genesis 18:17 is the Lord asking, “Should I hide my plan from Abraham? …so the Lord told him.” Then notice the very last thing we see in Genesis 18:33 is, “When the Lord had finished his conversation, he went on his way…” The Creator begins and finishes all conversations with the created—including you and me. Don’t forget, whether walking day-by-day in covenantal fellowship or connecting with God in a specific moment of prayer, it all starts and ends with God.

Too often we bring our plans and needs to God for him to bless without first finding out what he desires to bless. Rightly approaching prayer means acting on the prior assumption that God has initiated a plan and has invited our partnership in accomplishing it. That’s why we are to begin our prayers, as Jesus taught in the Lord’s Prayer, with, “God, it is your kingdom. So accomplish your plan.” When we have understood that, our interaction with God becomes what C.S. Lewis described: “Our prayers are really His prayers; God speaks to himself through us.” That is what’s going on with Abraham; that is what is motivating this “pushy” interaction with God: God initiated the conversation and invited Abraham into it. God is speaking to himself through Abraham.

Second, we learn that God’s justice is always clear and unimpeachable. In Genesis 18:20: the Lord says, “I’ve heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. I’m going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I’ve heard. If not, I want to know.”

This language is to accommodate us, since obviously, God doesn’t have to “come down” to hear, see or know anything. After all, he is “the Judge of all the earth.” (Genesis 18:25) God sees and hears everything with utter moral clarity. Everything! Nothing is hidden from him; no persistent, willful sin escapes Divine justice. And even if our culture is uncomfortable with it, as people who have been called into a covenant partnership with God, we need to take our stand upon that truth. We can not be a conduit of covenantal blessing if we don’t. Let’s never forget: God is the Righteous Judge of all the earth—he sees, he hears, he knows—and he’s just!

Yet third, we learn that God’s desire is always mercy first, judgment last —and that is the heart of this story. As this intercession ends in Genesis 18:32, Abraham asks, “Lord, please don’t be angry with me if I speak one more time: suppose only ten righteous people are found there?” And the Lord replied, “Then I won’t destroy it for the sake of the ten.”

Now we know the wages of sin is death, as Romans 6:23 says, but that is not God’s heart. Ezekiel 33:11 (NLT) says, “As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live.” What is Ezekiel telling us? Mercy is always extended before judgment falls; judgment is always God’s final option. “God is unwilling that any perish, but that all come to repentance.” (II Peter 3:9, cf. Joel 2:13, “He relents”; Micah 7:18, “he delights to show mercy.”)

At the end of the day, God doesn’t choose judgment; people choose judgment by refusing to submit to his rule. Keep in mind, as Sodom’s destroyed, you are seeing God’s loving mercy first in Abraham’s intercession. But in Sodom’s steadfast and arrogant godlessness, the only alternative is justice. Ultimately, God executes justice, but it’s with a broken heart; his mercy can’t overrule his just nature. Yet even then, his mercy pays the penalty his justice demands, providing forgiveness freely for the repentant.

The fourth thing we learn about God is that his plans are always affected by our passions. God said to Abraham in Genesis 18:32, “Then I won’t destroy it for the sake of the ten.” Now God knew there weren’t even ten righteous people in this city—Abraham knew that, too—nonetheless God allowed Abraham to mediate for Sodom.

Did Abraham change God’s mind? No! And while his intercession didn’t change God’s plan, it did affect God’s timing. God withheld judgment long enough for Lot and his family to be spared. Our intercession doesn’t force God’s hand; but it does express our passion for what God already cares about.

When we do that, our prayers become God’s prayers; he speaks to himself through us! So the basis of Abraham’s intercession for Sodom was the mercy of God. He knew all about the ungodly, arrogant, flagrant stuff going there, yet he prayed for them anyway. He knew God would never destroy the righteous with the wicked.

But what he is asking God to do now is to spare the wicked for the sake of the righteous. And in that, he has captured God’s heart; he has tapped God’s mercy; he has prayed God’s prayer! And we have just seen our covenant calling as Abraham’s children—which is simply and primarily this: that like Abraham with Sodom, we would make it hard for our city to go to hell.

Jesus taught as much in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:13 (LB), he said, “You are the world’s seasoning, to make it tolerable. If you lose your flavor, what will happen to the world?” The truth is, the darkness of our world will grow darker, and people only will grow in their hatred of God’s justice. But don’t forget: the door for his mercy remains open. And we are the doormen for God’s mercy. If we don’t or won’t embrace that calling, the world has no hope. Yet if we will pray for God’s mercy upon our sin-filled city, we will become the conduit of his covenant to bless our world through us. We will become God’s partners; we will be Abraham’s true offspring.

And perhaps God will spare our city for the sake of our righteousness.

Going Deep With God: The next time you find your hackles getting raised by some moral flagrancy in our culture, perhaps that should remind you to intercede for the lost. They are already condemned, so you don’t need to add to that. Instead, pray for them. I’m sure you will have plenty of opportunities this week to intercede for your city.

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God Gets The Last Laugh

He Is Good ... All The Time

God gets the last laugh. If you are in a covenantal relationship with God through faith, time and circumstances are irrelevant in terms of him fulfilling his promises to you. He will. He is covenantally faithful. And while your faith may laugh because of limited understanding, or even in sarcastic doubt, God is greater than the circumstances upon which you have chosen to focus. God is true, and he will bring to pass every promise he has given you. He will get the last laugh.

The Journey // Focus: Genesis 17:17-19

Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. “How could I become a father at the age of 100?” he thought. “And how can Sarah have a baby when she is ninety years old?” So Abraham said to God, “May Ishmael live under your special blessing!” But God replied, “No—Sarah, your wife, will give birth to a son for you. You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm my covenant with him and his descendants as an everlasting covenant.

God gets the last laugh—always!

While the New Living Translation renders Genesis 17:17, “Abraham laughed to himself in disbelief,” the New International Version leaves off the word “disbelief,” simply saying, “Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself,.” Whatever it’s motive, why the laughter? Abraham was understandably wondering how a son would be born to him, as God had promised in this encounter, and well as in previous ones, when he was nearly one hundred years old and not getting any younger, and his wife was not far behind, hovering around ninety.

Abraham laughed, but so did Sarah. In the next chapter, the Lord shows up yet again, and yet again reaffirms the covenant promise of God. In response, Sarah, eves-dropping from the flap of her tent, laughs to herself, but this time, her laughter is met with Divine rebuke. (Genesis 18:9-15) What was the difference—Abraham’s laugher was met with divine explanation; Sarah’s with divine admonition?

Flat out, Sarah didn’t believe the word of the Lord. She looked at the circumstances of her life, she’s childless at ninety, and chose to believe that condition ruled the day instead of the covenantal promise of God, with whom our age, or any other human reality, is not a factor. On the other hand, Abraham’s laughter most likely was a reflection not of his lack of faith (remember, in Genesis 15:6 he had believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness) as much as it was a limitation of his faith.

As you read the narrative of Abraham, God is progressively revealing himself and his covenantal promises/demands to this chosen man. Abraham, like you and me, often wondered, i.e., laughed with incredulity, as to how God will pull this or that off. The truth is, we have faith in God, we just don’t have the faith of God yet. But when our response turns to sarcastic doubting, a mocking, bitter pffft, which is likely the kind of laughter that privately exploded from Sarah’s mouth, we are in danger of divine displeasure.

But you’ve got to love God’s response to Abraham’s limited faith, and even Sarah’s critical doubting? God says, “you are to name the baby boy Isaac.” Don’t forget, Abraham is ninety-nine and Sarah is ninety. It has been thirteen years since the Almighty made the covenant with Abraham that if this chosen man would simply trust God, he and his wife would become the parents of many nations and the very human fountainhead of universal blessing. Yet over a decade later, in spite of the covenantal couple’s advanced age and persistent barrenness, God says, “name him Isaac,” which means, “God laughs.”

The point being, God gets the last laugh. If you are in a covenantal relationship with God through your faith in him, time and circumstances are irrelevant in terms of him fulfilling his promises to you. He will. He is a covenantally faithful God. And while your faith may laugh because of limited understanding, or even in sarcastic doubt, God is greater than the circumstances upon which you have chosen to focus. God is true to his Word, and he will bring to pass every promise he has given you. He will get the last laugh.

If you have expressed a lack of faith, or recognize that your perspective has suffered limited faith, I would recommend you do what Abraham did when the Lord spoke his promises to him: he fell down to the ground—a sign of respect and worship.

Even if you are still struggling with the impossibility of your circumstances and the slowness of God’s promises—if you are laughing at the impossibility of God’s blessing in your life—by faith, bow down and worship the One who is covenantally faithful, who always, always, always gets the last laugh!

Going Deeper: Bow before the Lord and acknowledge his greatness and his goodness. And like the frantic father of the demon possessed boy in Mark 9:24, cry out to God: “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!”

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Submission: A Costly Conduit of God’s Grace

Counterintuitive Obedience

God’s call for Hagar to submit to Sarah is a reminder that our submission leads to God’s seeing. When we obey God, even when obedience is counterintuitive, costly and uncomfortable, he will find us, listen to us, meet our need and restore us to his best plan for our lives. Thank God for submission to his will—a costly conduit of the manifold wisdom and provision of God through the difficult places in life!

The Journey // Focus: Genesis 16:9-10

Then the angel of the Lord told Hagar, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”

The challenges and complexities of life are often well beyond our intellectual and spiritual capacities. Many times we find ourselves in situations that require the wisdom and experience of a person who is well above our pay grade.

In this story, Hagar was at wits end. She was a servant girl, and had been moved across the chessboard like a pawn in Sarah and Abraham’s grand scheme. Her mistress had loaned her to sleep with Abraham in order to produce an heir, and Abraham had “all too gladly” accepted Sarah’s “generous” offer. When Hagar found out the encounter had resulted in her pregnancy, understandably, this girl who had nothing and was treated like nothing, became a bit uppity. Finally, she had something in her life to cheer about. As a result of her sudden status, however, her mistress mistreated her—most likely verbally and physically—until Hagar felt there was no other option than to run away.

But in running away, Hagar was running on empty. She had nothing: no means of support, no prospects for the future, and no plans for how to right her listing life. She was in a situation that required wisdom, experience and resources well above her pay grade.

That’s where God stepped in. Talk about Someone well above your pay grade! But God’s plan to right her life was probably not what she was hoping for. He instructed her, “Go back and submit to your mistress.” Yet in that difficult set of instruction was a promise—I will bless your obedience beyond your wildest imaginations (Genesis 16:10), and a guiding principle that would keep the ship of her life from helplessly listing ever again—the Lord had found her in her distress (Genesis 16:7), he had heard her complaint (Genesis 16:11, the son she would birth, was to be named Ishmael, which means, “God hears”), and he had granted her heart’s desire (Genesis 16:12, unlike Hagar, Ishmael would be a person to be reckoned with, and Genesis 16: 10, his descendants would multiple beyond numbering) had restored her dignity (Genesis 16:13-14).

The life lesson that God was teaching Hagar, a principal that he wants us to learn, is that our submission leads to his seeing. When we obey God, even when obedience is counterintuitive, costly and uncomfortable, he will find us, listen to us, meet our need and restore us to his best plan for our lives.

When God calls us to submit, he is simply asking us to surrender to a higher principle and a better plan than our own. When we truly understand what godly submission is, we will gladly embrace it, for there is great security in knowing that we have just turned our life’s challenges over to Someone well above our pay grade.

Thank God for submission to his will—a costly conduit of the manifold wisdom and provision of God through the difficult places in life!

Going Deeper: This will be a tough question to honestly answer, because the very nature of it will cause it to rub against the fur of our life, but to what or to whom is God calling you to submit? Do it! You are turning that “what” or that “whom” over to Someone who operates at a far higher pay grade than you.

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Believe And You Will See

The Reward of Faith

Don’t see the hand of God in your world? Believe that his hand is there—and sooner or later you will see it. “Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.” (Augustine) Thank God, whatever is offered in faith will always be rewarded.

The Journey // Focus: Genesis 15:1-6

After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Authentic Christian faith is the present acceptance of a reality that is still future. The next time you take a drink of water from your faucet, you are accepting in the moment that the water will be safe to drink. The next time you sit down on a chair, you are accepting in the moment that there will be structural integrity in the chair to bear your weight.

Faith is to believe what we do not see.

Hebrews 11:6 says that without this kind of faith, it’s impossible to discover God. You’ve got to believe he exists, and that he is good, fair and personal for you to find that God is good, fair and personal. That is the pre-condition for God revealing himself to you, as Anselm argued: credo ut intelligam—“I believe so that I may understand.”

Hebrews 11: 2 tells us, “It was by this faith that our spiritual ancestors won God’s approval.” One of those spiritual ancestors was Abraham, the man in our story today. So how did this kind of faith play out in his life here in Genesis 15?

Again, we see in Genesis 15:1-3, “After this, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision: “Fear not. I’m your shield, your very great reward.” But Abraham said, “Lord, what can you give me since I’m childless and the one who’ll inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

Eliezer was Abraham’s chief steward, and by legal right in the ancient Near East, next in line to inherit his master’s wealth. But Genesis 15:4 continues, “Then God said: ‘No one else will be your heir; you will have a son to inherit everything you own.’” Now don’t forget, Abraham is 100-years-old—Sarah, his wife, is not far behind—and they have no kids. That’s their reality…that’s what is visible to them.

Genesis 15:5-6 continues, “So God brought him outside beneath the night sky and told him, ‘Look up into the heavens and count the stars—if you can. Your descendants will be like that—too many to count!’ And Abraham believed God; then God credited it to him as righteousness on account of his faith.”

That’s what faith is! It is looking past the immediate to see the invisible. And that’s what made Abraham great in the eyes of the Lord and the spiritual progenitor of our faith. He believed what he did not yet see.

And as Abraham’s spiritual children, that is what God wants from us as well—to look beyond our present reality to embrace the not yet. Sounds a little risky, doesn’t it? But what God had said to Abraham in Genesis 15:1 he says to you and me, “Don’t be afraid, for I am your shield and your great reward.”

In other words, when you step out to place trust in God, he himself promised to not only protect your investment or faith in him, but to reward it with the greatest return on investment of all: his very own presence. God is more than your shield, as wonderful as that is. He is also your great very reward: God himself will be your treasure, he will personally become the truest satisfaction you will ever know. And your experience of the presence of God’s will be a far greater pleasure than even the joy of what you are hoping your faith will produce.

Abraham placed trust in God’s promise that he would be his shield and his reward, and that was the turning point in Abraham’s journey of faith. The New Testament writer James says of that moment, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness…” Then he adds: “and Abraham was called God’s friend.” (James 2:23)

Abraham’s greatest legacy wasn’t the results his faith attained—he did indeed become the father of many nations—but it was the relationship his faith gained: he became a friend of God.

The brilliant Augustine of Hippo described it this way: “Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.” And best of all, what you will see is that when you risk faith in the God you do not see, you will see that you have become a friend of God.

Going Deep: In what area of your life do you need to express faith in God? Do it! Along with the Apostle Paul, boldly declare, “I believe God.” (Acts 27:25)

tvery

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Cultivating Healing Community

Yet Another Benefit of a Small Group

James isn’t promoting the idea that you stand up in front of the church next Sunday and blurt out all your sins from the past week—bad words, dirty thoughts, rotten attitudes and dark deeds. While that might be quite entertaining to the folks sitting in the pews, it probably wouldn’t have the intended results James had in mind. Rather, he is speaking of being in an accountable relationship, a small group of some kind where the conditions have been cultivated for redemptive confession to take place. They (whoever “they” are) say that confession is good for the soul. That’s true. But it’s good for the whole, too—the whole person. Confession and repentance will lead not only to cleansing of your heart, it will bring release to your mind and perhaps be the catalyst that speeds healing to your body.

The Journey: James 5:16

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

I don’t think James is promoting the idea that you stand up in front of the congregation the next time you’re in church and blurt out all your sins from the past week—bad words, dirty thoughts, rotten attitudes and dark deeds. While that might be quite entertaining to the rest of the folks sitting in the pews, it probably wouldn’t have the intended results James had in mind.

I suspect James is speaking of being in accountable relationships, perhaps a small group of some kind where the conditions have been cultivated for redemptive confession to take place. That’s why I am a firm believer that every Christian needs a small group (somewhere around eight people is ideal, in my opinion) where relationships have developed enough that this kind of open sharing can take place.

That kind of relationship does not develop overnight. It takes time. It takes a track record of confidentiality. It takes the absolute certainly that your fellow group members have your back. It must be a safe place. It has to be a group where you know that the others have your best interests in mind. And it must be the kind of experience where you have given your spiritual partners permission to look deeply into your soul, ask you penetrating questions, and hold your feet to the fire for your spiritual walk.

Do you have a group like that? If you don’t, ask God to bring people into your life with whom you can cultivate that kind of healing community. Then do the hard work of cultivating openness and accountability with them. I have done that now for years, and would not even begin to think of doing life any other way. It is one of the activities of my week that keeps me spiritually grounded.

They (whoever “they” are) say that confession is good for the soul. That’s true. But it’s good for the whole, too…the whole person. Confession and repentance will lead not only to cleansing of your heart, it will bring release to your mind and perhaps be the catalyst that speeds healing to your body.

“If you have sinned, you should tell each other what you
have done. Then you can pray for one another and
be healed. The prayer of an innocent person
is powerful, and it can help a lot.”
(James 1:16, CEV)

Prayer… Lord, thank you for the people that you have brought into my life who are not afraid to look me in the eye and ask me penetrating questions about the condition of my heart. Give them constant courage, deeper insight, and an overflow of grace. I recognize before you in this moment that I cannot live a healthy spiritual life without that—and them.

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Incredible Faith Requires Impossible Odds

Embrace Your Impossibilities

When we follow the voice of God, the steps of faith required will often bring us to the edge of impossible chasms. Why does God bring us to those places when he could have led us along easier paths? Simply because it is at the chasm of faith that ruthless trust is developed, and there is nothing more precious to God than our trust. Impossible odds force us to lean into a God whose power is unlimited, whose wisdom is unfathomable, and whose love is unstoppable. If you are at a faith chasm today, take a step of trust!

The Journey // Focus: Genesis 14:19-20

Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing: “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who has defeated your enemies for you.” Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods he had recovered.

Impossible odds! When we follow the voice of God, the steps of faith we are required to take will bring us to the edge of impossible chasms from time to time.

Why does God allow this? Is it because he is incompetent, uncaring or unaware? Not at all! For one thing, nothing is too hard for the Lord—ever. (Genesis 18:14, Jeremiah 32:17). There is no chasm too wide, no problem too hard, no odds too great. He is God, after all. And for another, God is committed to developing our trust. How else will trust develop than through us coming face to face with our own limitations, only to see time and again that we belong to a God whose power is unlimited, whose wisdom is unfathomable, and whose love is unstoppable. There is nothing more precious to God than our trust, and he is committed to developing it in us.

Abraham, as primitive a man as we might think him to be, was quite sophisticated in his theology—he recognized early on the trustworthiness of the God who was leading him into seemingly impossible challenges. So did the priest of Salem, Melchizedek, who came out to bless Abraham after his stunning victory. Both the victor and the priest recognized that the blessing of the incredible win against overwhelming odds—Abraham’s 318 men against 5 kings of city-states, led by one whose reign had dominated the regions for years—had come only because it was God Most High who had defeated these enemies. That indeed, was the blessings of the Most High. (Genesis 14:19-20).

Then Abraham chose to recognize the true reason for the success, thereby setting an eternal pattern, by given a tithe (one-tenth) of all he had gained in battle to the priest, who was a representative of God. (Genesis 14:18) So committed to honoring God and refusing to make himself famous (compare Genesis 11:4 with Genesis 12:1-2), Abraham even refused to take a payment from the defeated kings who had benefitted from Abraham’s victory of the dominant kings that had subjected them for years. Abraham let it be known then, and for all time, that there was no human reason for his success; in truth, his success came from God, and God alone.

The point being that when you follow God, your faith will take you to what is, from the human perspective, a place of impossible odds. But God has wisely and lovingly led you there to solidify in your faith that the Most High you follow is the God of the impossible.

God wants your trust. And there is only one way to get it! Keep that in mind the next time you are facing impossible odds.

Going Deeper: What is your impossibility today? Identify it, then offer a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord for the opportunity to go deeper in your faith. And when you have come out the other side victoriously, don’t forget to honor God in a tangible way. What way? Abraham has set a pattern for you!