Analyzing the Practical God (The Faith of Abraham, and What That Was All About)

A few months back, sometime in August I believe it was, I posted an entry about the Patient God.  In there, I promised to come back later with something about another aspect of God that I had grown to fancy, and that was the Practical God.  In that time, this idea of the Practical God has really been at the back of my mind, tickling the Biblical receivers in my brain (hey, I only got a B in Psych 1101, so forgive me if my cranial anatomy is a bit hazy).  Tonight, I am here to talk a little about what I've learned about the Practical God.

The first thing I want to say is that for the last however long that I've been thinking about this idea, I have become more and more convinced that our God is the most practical being in all the Universe.  Some of you may disagree with me, pointing to convoluted ideas in the Bible or complicated signs and wonders you've heard about, but I believe it and will probably keep examining scripture with this mindset for a long time.  Feel free to discuss that with me or leave comments below dis/agreeing with my ideas, either way, but I believe it and will try to convince you.

Now over the past week, my Faith had been tested and shaken.  I was hurting and I was in need of something.  I was in need of a miracle of sorts, and I didn't even know it.  Well as you can no doubt imagine, I received said miracle, and it was much easier to swallow than my last big miracle.  But enough of that.  Something happened that really just got to me and reaffirmed my Faith, reaffirming the notion that my God has my best interest at heart, and that He is there to provide the best possible life for me, His life for me.

I met an old friend of mine for dinner, and in the course of conversation we got caught up on where each other was in life and had been and was going.  We talked about my student teaching experiences and her new job and I just saw how all of these prior experiences in life brought each of us to our present location.  I thought about how these loose connections all came to a point, how they came to this point, and how they will inevitably lead to a prepared and protected future.  I saw how God was with me in a difficult place, how He prepared the way for me at the school last year and had set things up from the beginning.  I saw how God had provided in my friend's life, and how He had brought her to the place she needed to be.  I saw God's plan in perfect hindsight, understanding how and why things had fallen the way they did.

Without going too deep into the details of the thing (because as the saying goes, you just might find the devil there...haha), I came away from this meal with a renewed Faith and a renewed spirit in a time of weakness and doubt.  So, after rocking out on the drive home to my new favorite song of the week, RelientK's "Devestation and Reform" (go look it up right now...or finish reading first, that'd be better) and a resulting Genius playlist, I opened up my Bible App on my phone and went to a reading plan on Faith.

Which, of course, brings me to Abraham.  Now Abraham, as most of you know, was an old man with a very special son.  His son Isaac would go on to be the patriarch of the Jewish nation (and, really, that means Abraham was also the patriarch of the Jewish nation, but let's not split hairs).  Now this one time, God asked Abraham to take his son Isaac and sacrifice him as a burnt offering.  I encourage you to go look this story up, too, in Genesis 22:1-14 (okay, do that one now, I don't mind waiting.

There are a couple of important things to take away from this story.  One of them that often goes overlooked is the fact that God told Abraham to travel to a place that He would determine to sacrifice Isaac.  Let's examine this first.  So Abraham and Isaac travel for three days with a couple servants before God tells Abraham where Isaac is to be sacrificed.  Three days carrying wood and supplies.  Not an easy trek by any means.  Then, when God does show Abraham where to go, it is at the top of a mountain that he then had to climb.  Abraham had to walk with his son up a mountain carrying all this wood (the physical burden he handed to the youthful Isaac) and a torch and knife for sacrificing his beloved child (the emotional and spiritual burden he had to carry himself).  That is not an easy challenge by any stretch of the imagination.  Now Abraham had already heard the command from God to sacrifice his son, so at any point he could have stopped and killed Isaac as commanded.  But it wouldn't have been in the place where God commanded.  And for those of you who know the story, you know how tragic that would have been, because God never wanted Abraham to kill Isaac.  At any point, Abraham could have decided that he had trusted God enough and would not progress in His plan, but would just kill Isaac then and there and follow through half-way.  But he didn't.  He followed God's plan until the end, and both Abraham and Isaac were rewarded for it.

But why?  I can understand you not seeing any practicality in that whatsoever.  You ask, "But Adam.  How is this practical?  Was there not an easier way?"  Let us look, then, at the reason God gave Abraham on the mountain.  Let us examine why it is that God told Abraham He had asked the man to go through with this.  Upon raising the knife to kill Isaac, Abraham heard a voice from The Angel of the Lord speak.

[Gen. 22:12] -NLT-
"Don't lay a hand on the boy!" the angel said.  "Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God.  You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son." 

The first thing that jumps out at me, now, is the part where God says, "for now I know..."  Can anyone tell me why?  How many of you are familiar with the term, "Omniscience?"  Well, if you took Latin in high school or college, then you should immediately recognize a few things here.  Or, if you took a Bible class or attended Sunday School past the age of 10, you should just know the answer.  Omniscience is essentially knowing everything.  God is omniscient.  So when God says that this event proved Abraham's Faith to Him, how should we really read that?  I mean, God knew.  He absolutely knew what Faith Abraham had in Him.  But see, Abraham did not know.  He was clueless as to the potential for Faith he had, and so God asked him to partake in this impossible journey and commit this unthinkable action.

And even more than teaching Abraham what kind of Faith he had, it also taught him what kind of Faith he could have in God, in a God who will take you so far just to carry you the rest of the way.  Faith in a God who will ask the impossible of you, and then complete the impossible in you and through you.  That is the Faith that Abraham found when God stopped the knife in his hand from falling on Isaac.  That is the Faith that Abraham found at the mountain that people named "Yahweh-Yireh," or "The God Who Provides/God Will Provide."

Have you ever tried to tell someone that they were capable of doing something that they didn't think they were?  Most of us cling to our fears and perceived inadequacies like a wool blanket at a base camp on Mt. Everest.  They protect us from having to deal with the difficulties and responsibilities of pressing on to face the challenges at hand.  But when a person is tricked into realizing their own potential, like that scene in Shrek where the big green guy forces Eddie Murphy's Donkey across a rickety bridge, they are much more likely to realize what they are capable of.  God knows this.  He should.  On top of that handy little omniscience, he created us.  He knows our psyche better than we do (so he would probably have gotten an A in Psych 1101, excepting schools that offer the coveted A+, not that God covets).

And let us not forget, the patient practicality of God, as He did not just up and decide one day to task Abraham with an immense test of Faith.  For years, God had been preparing Abraham for this very moment and this very chore.  God was teaching Abraham and refining his Faith constantly, even through a few key mistakes along the road where Abraham learned that a lack of Faith would be most costly (SEE: Sister/Wife and "Call him Ishmael").  In steps, God showed Abraham the kind of Faith he was capable of, constantly building and improving the man he would ultimately become and the act he would become most famous for.  And this teaching moment was not wasted on an old man, either.  Isaac was present, and you can rest assured that no teaching moment is more permanently ingrained than the one that endangers and, simultaneously, saves your life.

So I pray that as you read this, God will restore your Faith.  Or if need be, He will refine your Faith.  As I tweeted earlier this evening (go follow me now: @42Cobras), "Faith untested is Faith unrefined."  We will face trials and difficult times, and we will often fail.  But, my God is Faithful to bring me through those times, and He will bring me through stronger on the other side.  And as long as He can be Faithful to me, surely I can manage to be Faithful to Him.

If you feel your Faith is faltering, take the chance and pray for God to refine your Faith.  Pray for God to show you what Faith you have in you and how He has been Faithful to you all along.

Adam W. "Is A 4-Point Letter on WWF" Wynn
Phil. 3:12-14

AUTHOR'S NOTE: So I recently finished "Will Baker is Dead!"  And by finished, I mean I wrote the concluding episode/chapter.  I technically am not done yet because I decided to go back and add two chapters, one of which will be only a few short pages long, so no big deal.  I am currently in the Critical Reading stage, or as I call it, the "Oh God, oh God, I hope they don't tell me my book sucks," stage, where I have friends reading it and compiling commentary for me to go back and figure out what needs to be changed and what needs to be kept.  In other words, yes, some people do in fact know the secret of what happened.  The chilling conclusion is now known to someone other than just me.  Too bad you will have to wait your turn.  In a few months, when I am hopefully working on the publishing process and we are entering summer, I will go back and publish the remaining chapters online.  Yes, that includes the as of yet nonexistent Episode 6 I always talk about.  The last published chapter on here was Episode 9, and the story will go up to Episode 13, so you only have five left to go when you remember Episode 6 (and how could you forget!).  I really do look forward to you all reading and enjoying the series, and hopefully buying the book when it hopefully gets published in a time period that is hopefully no longer than three years.  For now, tell me what you think of any other postings such as this one or any of the episodes of Will Baker.  And go follow me on Twitter!  Again, that is @42Cobras.  What else would it be?