The Daily Devotion

Blog Update #2 for today (I’m on a roll, I know)

This was devotion today-Read afterwards for my thoughts…                                                

“So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, ‘On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.’” Genesis 22:14 (NIV)

Have you ever been in a situation so desperate that it looked hopeless?

Have you ever sat at the kitchen table wondering how you were going to pay the electric bill? Have you ever stood at a door that’s been slammed in your face by an angry teenager and despaired at having a relationship with him again? Have you ever had your heart broken so deeply that you wondered if you would feel whole again?

Sadly, we live in a broken world where desperate situations happen every day. I know someone reading this devotion is wondering how she will make it through the day because her situation looks hopeless. If that is you, I encourage you to keep reading. I believe God has a message of hope for you today.

That message is found in the Bible, in the story of a man who was dealing with his own desperate situation. His name was Abraham and he faced the greatest testing of his life. After longing for a son for many years, God finally gave Abraham a boy, whom he named Isaac. Abraham never imagined God would test his faith by asking him to sacrifice his son. But it happened.

It had to have been the darkest day of Abraham’s life as he trudged up the mountain, with firewood strapped to his son’s back. Every step took Abraham closer to what he believed to be the sad ending of a hopeless situation—the death of his son. Yet in spite of his sorrow, Abraham trusted God. His heart wasn’t soaring with joy. He wasn’t dancing up the mountain. But he put one foot in front of the other. Walking through the darkness of the situation; obeying His God’s commands.

Unbeknownst to Abraham, something else was walking up that mountain. Quietly. Out of sight. On the other side of the mountain. Something else was putting one foot in front of the other. Only Abraham couldn’t see it.

For every step Abraham took, a ram on the other side of the mountain took a step.

All Abraham saw that day was his solitary journey of pain. As he got closer to the top of the mountain, his dread must have increased. I wonder if he asked himself any questions. I would have. I would have wondered why hadn’t God intervened? Why hadn’t God stopped this testing? Couldn’t God see that Abraham was a man of faith? Why test him in this way?

But there was no answer. There was no voice from heaven. And so Abraham kept obeying his God’s command. He put Isaac on an altar and prepared to sacrifice his one and only son.

And just at that very moment, at the very last second, when it looked like the end had come, God spoke, stopping the sacrifice. Abraham looked up and there caught in the thicket was a ram. Abraham took his son off the altar, replaced him with the ram, and offered the sacrifice to God.

Abraham named that place “Yahweh-Yireh” or “The Lord Will Provide.” And the story was written down for generations of God-followers to read. It was written so that you and I today would read it as we face our own hopeless situations. It was captured in print so that you and I would know that God is already planning for our provision. We don’t see it. We don’t hear it. But we can trust that our God is at work. On your behalf, and on mine.

I choose to trust God today. A ram is on the way.

A few weeks after Ian & Owen were born, I was on facebook & read on a friends page, a link she had pasted. It was to a devotional from this writer above. I don’t even remember what the devotional was now ( I know, it was 8 weeks ago and I already forgot, it’s pathetic) But at that point in this process, I found it overwhelmingly helpful. I put in my e-mail address to receive daily devotionals from this place & it has not failed to come in my e-mail daily! In the last 2-3 weeks, I have read them sporadically…. just because I don’t really care what they have to say. Today however, I read it. I am SURE there is a message in this….even though my situation is a little different. God did not intervene with the sacrifice. It’s kind of funny, because a high school friend sent me an email on facebook yesterday ( I won’t mention your name, don’t worry) and reminded me that although I may be angry with God right now-there is no person to better understand how I feel because after all, he sacrificed his son also! So, Thanks “Friend from high school” for your very true words.  It did not impact me yet to the extreme that I am sure it one day will, but that is solely for the purpose of my anger right now. If you know me, which I assume you do if you’re reading this, you know that I am not a patient person, and I do not like having answers. When things happen, I’d like a reason for that. When my children can’t seem to pay attention, I want to know what’s going on their heads that is distracting them. If Cris is being a pain (sorry dear, but it happens!) I want to know WHAT is bothering him, although it usually ends up that he’s a guy-and that’s just what guys do! They have mood swings for no reason…..but to me, there HAS to be a reason for everything.

Enough of my rambling, I just thought this was an interesting devotional for today-considering the anger I wrote about yesterday & the e-mail I got from High School Friend! I am still in a place that I do not understand and I am still choosing to be angry, but I appreciate the sentiment that God will still be there waiting for me when I am done processing this…