Good Patient or Bad Patient
By Steve Bietz
Burke County
Remember Abraham’s relationship with God. They were two of the best friends in history!
Abraham knew God well. He had had a long experience with God. When God had asked
him to do things before, it had always worked out well and it made sense at the end. But
then God asked Abraham to do something beyond his understanding. “And God said take
now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him
there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell thee.” Genesis 22:2
I have heard it suggested that yes, Abraham was a man of faith but couldn’t you call it blind
faith when Abraham set out to obey God’s request for him to go and take the life of his son?
God asked him to do something that puzzled him a great deal. At the moment he couldn’t
understand. But he said, God if it is you saying it (and I know you so well) I know that this will
make sense at some point and you will provide some kind of solution, so I’m on my way. That
can’t be the definition of what we might think of as blind faith.
This is the kind of faith that says, “God, I’m on my way, but may I ask why?” And Abraham
thought it through, and said to himself, “The One who gave me this son miraculously is able to
resurrect him as well (Hebrews 11:19). Or maybe He will provide a substitute at the last minute
(Genesis 22:8).” So instead of the sacrifice of Isaac being blind faith, I would say Abraham
knew God well enough to go and to know God would provide a solution that made sense.
Now, of course, Abraham wondered and questioned. Faith can include that kind of thing. And
when we have found God to be trustworthy in the past, we are willing to obey Him when He asks
us to do something beyond our present understanding. The word obedience means a
willingness to listen.
Suppose I have just gone to my Physician with an advanced case of arthritis, will my Doctor ask
me to run the four-minute mile on the way home? Of course not! Instead, he helps
me down the steps into my wheelchair. He says, “Walk a little further this week, take your
medication, and be sure to come back.” What the Doctor is really asking me is a “willingness
to cooperate.”
I think to picture God as our Physician is the best model we could have. As with the Physician,
the performance that God really desires of us is the willingness to listen. I might die the
next day, but I’m going to die, His trusting patient. God has never lost a patient, except for the
patients who are unwilling to listen. But when we are willing to listen, our behavior
becomes more like God. May God guide you and me to be good patients who listen
to their Physician, our Heavenly Father.
____________________________________________
Steve Bietz is the pastor at Morganton Seventh Day Adventist Church. You can read more good Christian news from Pastor Steve Bietz HERE.
____________________________________________
Blue Ridge Christian News covers Burke County, McDowell County, Mitchell County, Yancey County, Madison County, in North Carolina, and Christian news from around the country.
