Totally Inadequate (final thought)

One last look at Abraham’s totally inadequacy… Genesis 15.

Just in way of summary… we’ve seen four main things take place in Genesis 15 between Abraham and the Lord. They are:

1. Abraham chooses to believe God – for no other apparent reason than a basic trust in his God, Abraham simply chooses to believe the promise that God had made to him. (This would explain why Abraham wound up with the nickname, Father of Our Faith.)

2. Abraham kept it real – He wasn’t afraid our too proud to ask God a pretty honest question. Apparently, it’s possible to “have faith” and still have some fairly skeptical questions.

3. God responds to Abraham - He responds to Abraham by having him prepare for a covenant-cutting ceremony. This is the most interesting part to me… God has him do something that Abraham’s probably done, or at least seen done, many times before. (this was a common practice during that time) I wonder if Abraham had been hoping for something a little more spectacular or different?

4. God takes all the pressure onto Himself – the twist is that in the end God uses the ‘picture’ or ’symbol’ of the covenant ceremony to make a simple, but powerful, statement… God essentially says, ‘I will bring this thing to pass! I will fulfill my promise! This has nothing to do with your ability, or lack thereof. I promise to do this for you.’

How often in our lives do we take the responsibility onto ourselves for the things that only God can do? We put so much unnecessary pressure on ourselves. Unfortunately, it’s just something that we humans just quite naturally do. That is, we’re self-centered. We take waaay to much responsibility for the results we’re hoping for in life… consequently, we tend to take waaay to much credit as well.

At its most fundamental level, we see this happening in man’s attempt to save himself. This is what we call ‘dead religion’ or ‘works’… stuff we do in an attempt to save ourselves. Pray, confess, read, sing, give, be nice, give, sing, read, confess, pray, be nice, don’t lie, fight the devil, be nice, go to church, go to church, go to church, etc., etc., etc… And we subconsciously think to ourselves, ‘I’m doing it! I’m getting more and more saved! I’m a kick-ass Christian!’

Please… don’t misunderstand me… all of those things are good things, biblical things, things I personally do a lot of… but not because I think that I’m somehow impressing God, or ’saving’ myself, or healing myself, or doing anything that somehow God just isn’t able to do Himself… without my brilliant assistance. God wants us to do stuff… but not because He’s desparately counting on us to ‘get the job done’. It’s because He wants us to engage Him, and to know Him, and to learn Christlike-character-building lessons along the way. If we’re DOING stuff for any other reason, we’re simply playing ‘religion’.

However, there is one thing we can do. It’s the one thing that Abraham was given credit for… Abraham believed. He chose to trust the Lord. Even when nothing added up… even when every natural thing around him said otherwise… even when he was still plagued with questions of doubt… Abraham chose to believe. He trused the Lord. The most significant thing we can ever do is to simply say, ‘Lord, I can’t do it. I don’t understand how You’re going to do it. But nevertheless… Lord, I trust You.’