Come Away With Me...

I took a walk tonight after class to be alone with God. The sky is black with only a few specks of twinkling light. The tree's weathered features, shown by the lamp light. The sleeping leaves, rustled by the cool breeze that nips at my cheeks. It's just me, the sound of my feet on the pavement, and the God that my heart is longing for. There seems as though there is not enough time in the world to soak in all of this beautiful creation, each precious, intricate detail. Every time I get alone with God in His creation, I always seem to hear Him say, "Do you like it, Holly? I made it for you." How can I not love my God? How can I not feel worth, when the Creator of all things offers me His best? Me, of all people! With all my mistakes and failures, yet His faithful love...it's more than I can comprehend.

What does it take?

What did it take to have a faith that pleased God? What did it take to solidify his faith in the one, True God? Had he seen many miracles to convince him? Was Abraham's faith built soley on the works of God's hands or of the Words He spoke? How was his faith in God so strong that when after finally receiving the promised son, he would sacrafice the very thing he desired from the beginning?This desire must have burned so deep in Abraham; a son, the sign of a heritage, the blessing of God. The thought, the desire, flooding his mind as he quietly led his flocks and worked in the day. The emotion and hope running high after making love to his wife and thinking that "maybe this time we will have a son". Hope crushed after Sarah's cycle began, proving the subtle doubt that crept in with the first sign of hope. How, when God promised Abraham and Sarah the fulfillment of their deepest desire, did they believe Him? After so many years of trying. After so many years of hope crushed. How did they hold onto what He said? When all the odds stacked up high against the very promise of God, how did they believe Him enough to have a faith that pleased God? Sarah is past child barring years, Abraham is as good as dead, and then, at that moment, they conceive. When every logical, even just plain reality, set in saying "Give up, move on. It's too late"....how? How did they still believe?God promised and fulfilled the deepest desire of their hearts, then He asks them to give Him Isaac, their son. Their only son. Is this where the whole "He gives and takes away" thing comes into play? Or was it that once their son was born, he started taking the place of the One who gave him life. "Isaac worship"? Could it have been that he started becoming an idol in Abraham's life and God would have none of that? Yet, when faced with a decision to obey God or not, Abraham obeyed. The decision must have gutted him alive.How, when the Bible says that Abraham believed God would provide in Isaacs place, did he not stop and question God. "What the heck?!" would have been my words.Abraham had a faith that pleased God, and rightly so. I want a faith like that. That when all the odds are against the very Words He spoke to me, when it seems too late, when He asks for it back, when I dont understand...that I would trust in the I AM and please Him with my faith. "I dont know what you are doing, and yes, it hurts my heart, but I will trust in you."