God really has a cool way of pointing me to what he wants to teach me in a way that leaves no doubt in my mind. Remember how, in my last post, I had been reading in Matthew 6 about worry? The verse that my devotional focused on this morning was, you guessed it, found in Matthew 6. Verse 34, to be exact: "Don't worry at all then about tomorrow. Tomorrow can take care of itself!..."
I stopped in my tracks immediately upon reading those words, reflecting on the fact that this verse has come into my life multiple times in the past couple of days. What is it I'm worried about? I had to ask myself. Almost always the answer to this question is money. Not that we won't have enough today, but that we won't have enough next month or the month after that. And where does thinking like that leave me? Nowhere healthy. We have always been blessed with all our material needs each day that we need them. I sometimes feel a little bit of anxiety about the future: where we'll end up living, what I'll do for a job, where to send the kids to school, will our house ever sell when we decide to put it back on the market again? For some reason, these big events I find easier to lay down at God's feet and walk away from. He knows exactly those plans that He has for us, and I'm confident He will clearly open the doors He desires for us to walk through. Anyway, that's a short story made long there. God is commanding me not to worry. Not about tomorrow. Not even about today. He asks me to be anxious for nothing, to cast my cares upon Him, who is abundantly capable of working out all things for "those who love him and are called according to his purpose."

Today I also read the account of Abraham and how God "tested [his] faith and obedience." (Gen. 22:1). I've always read this story between the lines, so to speak. At the age of 100 Abraham at long last becomes a father, and a few years later God demands his son back. By way of sacrifice, no less. I cannot imagine, especially now as a mother, the amount of prayerful pleading, hand-wringing, sobbing that must have taken place on Abraham's account. How sleep-deprived and haggard he must have appeared to his son and the servants accompanying them on this ominous journey. Of course, we aren't told Abraham's state of mind in all this. It's left up to speculation. Or is it? Nowhere in Genesis 22 does it tell us how devastated Abraham was. Maybe that's because he wasn't! This was a man who faithfully walked, talked, and even argued with God. He has seen God bring about marvelous, miraculous wonders. Perhaps Abraham's faith was already so great that he immediately saw through this test. After all, hadn't God covenantly promised to make great nations from his descendants? How can there be descendants with no son? (Ishmael notwithstanding.) So perhaps he started out on this journey to Moriah with a downright jaunty step. Perhaps when he answers Isaac's query about the missing sacrificial lamb: "God will provide a lamb, my son", he truly belives this. I found today that I would like to think this is the case because that is the level of faith I desire to have. Whatever God demands of me, that I would do it without hesitation, knowing that he has absolutely the best-laid plans waiting for me and will be faithful to keep his promises.

I do have to wonder though (doing that between the lines thing again) whether a twinge of discomfort, doubt, panic, even, entered Abraham as he lifted his son onto a wood-laden altar and tied him there (and I can't imagine Isaac took that quietly). Were there beads of sweat and a desperate prayer lacing his brow as he lifted his knife? Again, we are left to speculate. All I know is that Abraham was tested and was not found wanting, and God rewarded him powerfully for that. Oh Lord, that I would someday face you and hear you say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."