Earning Your Trust (Genesis 21-22)

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Genesis 21-22

What does it take to earn your trust?

If you are like most people, the answer is..."depends".  It depends on how important the task or information is and how faithful you view the other person receiving the instructions or information.

For example, if you worked at a retail store and you were in charge of a department, you would want to entrust tasks to fellow employees whom you believed would get the job done.  The more important the task, the pickier you would become in choosing a person for the assignment.

The same goes with our personal lives.  Not all information about our lives is the same.  There is a big difference between telling someone you dropped out of college to pursue a career, than telling someone that you have struggled (and may still struggle with) drugs, pornography or suicide.  Some of it is easily accessible for anyone wanting to build a surface relationship with us.  And other parts are hard to share, reserved only for those who have proven themselves faithful.

Abraham has finally crossed that line with God.  His journey has taken him nearly 40 years, but he has come to that point where he is willing to hold nothing back from God.  The sending off of Ishmael and Hagar.  The sacrifice of his son Isaac.  These are Abraham's most prized possessions in the world that God has given him.  Though not easy, Abraham has come to the point where he believes God has earned his trust...in everything.

He no longer has to trust what he can see and manufacture because he has seen God do the impossible.  And this was only possible through a lifetime of belief.  Messy.  Imperfect.  Misunderstood.  Amazed.  Belief.

I believe our walk with Christ is much the same as Abraham's journey to become the "Father of Faith".  We jump in with both feet, as Abraham did in leaving his loved ones in another land.  We fear obedience God's way because it looks so different than the way of the world, so we stumble and compromise, causing pain.  We try to manufacture the will of God in our lives, rather than trusting Him to accomplish His will in our lives, as with Abraham and Hagar.  We continue to come back to God again and again, to remember His promises to us and to remind us that He doesn't break His promises.  We struggle to trust God when He tells us to meet together and truly bear each other's burdens and become vulnerable, because all of this is easier to do on our own than trust His way of growth.

And what follows our results are:  Failure.  Compromise.  Doubt.  Messiness.  Glimpses of amazing glory and grace.  Miracles.  And finally...eventually...unwavering faith and trust.

Somewhere along this walk...we like Abraham...cross a line.  It is a line that has been earned through a combination of our mistakes (for not trusting God) and God's faithfulness.  It is not something that is usually granted at the moment of belief.  It takes a lifetime to learn.

So if you are not there yet.  Take heart and struggle to remain faithful with all your might.  You may yet find that you have the faith of Abraham.