A Better Measure of Worship

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What is faith? Abraham has been in school a long time and answers from God’s perspective. Faith is confidence in what God says then acting upon it. It is not seeing what I can do or get God to do.

In God’s school of faith, trust is built in the tests and trials of life as we learn to obey Him. Abraham is now in graduate school having earned his doctorate by things which he suffered (endured).

We do too. Suffering, like it or not, is a key to Christian growth. Life’s humbling, humiliations, and our humanity burn away foolish notions about God and ourselves leaving us with a purer faith.

We learn more about faith in suffering than study. Study produces doctrine, suffering produces depth: It’s a call to worship. Study teaches us truth about Jesus, suffering teaches us to trust Jesus.

In God’s school of faith, the tests get harder before we graduate. We learn that God’s way is best, obedience, and the power of yielding through the things which we suffer (Gen. 22:1-18).

v. 1-2. Our trust is built in our trials and there’s always room to grow. A well-seasoned faith will serve us well when bigger tests come. Faith doesn’t make demands it yields to God’s commands.

As faith matures, we gave God our Lot’s & Ismael’s (baggage/burdens/problems), now he wants our Isaacs (blessings/promises). Giving God the carnal things gives ways to giving Him everything

v. 3-6. This is no easy task, trust helps. Faith matures when worship becomes more about sacrificial obedience than singing. How we handle suffering is a better measure of faith than how we sing.

v. 7-10. True faith emboldens others to “worship” when it acts upon belief in what God can do and says. “God will provide himself a lamb” is faith built from experience (Heb. 5:8-9, 11:1-2, 6, 17-19).

v. 11-12. Faith and trust are built in the trials we endure (1 Pet. 5:10-12). Many times, the trial (emotional, spiritual, physical…) isn’t terminated until self-will is eliminated and yielded to God.

v. 13-14. Our greatest insights about God will come from our deepest suffering. When our faith is tested, we learn God was doing more than we perceived (Moriah Gen. 22:2, 2 Chr. 3:1, 2 Sam. 24:18-25).

v. 15-19. Dr. Abraham wrote the book on faith, not from his studies, but from his suffering. The tests of life teach us to trust God more.

When we do, we’ll come off the mountain full of blessed assurance in all of God’s promises!

Faith is confidence in what God says, then acting upon it. It is not seeing what you can do or get God to do. Suffering helps us grow in our faith as trust toward Jesus is built one trial at a time.

Friend, if your faith is being tested keep trusting God. He’s calling you to worship. Believe, yield, obey. Your faith will grow as you see life from God’s perspective not your own.