Faith Tested

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

Bible stories aren’t just stories to be told, they are lessons to be learned. So, the next time you read a story in your Bible, an important question to ask is, “Why?” Why did God allow that man, woman, family, nation to experience what I just read? 

That is particularly important when testing is involved, like when God tested Abraham by telling him to sacrifice his son. Why would God put a man through something like that? A partial answer is found in the word itself, to test. It comes from a Hebrew word that has the idea of proving the quality of something, in this case, Abraham’s faith.

The purpose of the test was not to satisfy God’s curiosity at all. The binding of Isaac was Abraham’s proving ground. And if faith were ever to be put on display, this had to be that day. The test was to prove that Abraham loved God more than his promised son — that he worshiped God above all else.

Let’s set Abraham aside and consider our own faith for a moment. Do I worship what God has given me more than God the Giver? Take a breath and think before you answer that question.

We worship by action and by heart. Worship is affirming what is valuable to us. That is the Anglo-Saxon meaning of worship — “worthship.” If you truly want to know what you worship, follow the trail of your sacrifices and add them up. Or, you can answer this question: For whom or what do I sacrifice more, or more often? That’s what you worship.

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham… Genesis 22.1