Believeing God's Promises When the Unexpected Happens

Wow, what a title.  Stephen and I had stopped doing our daily devotionals together that we had started at the beginning of the year.  Partially because I had been so sick for about a month and a half when I was pregnant and I was on a completely different sleep pattern than he was (we do them right before we go to bed) and partially because after my miscarriage I just didn't feel like studying the word with him or myself.  Every day I would see the devotional siting on the night stand and think, "I don't want to do that, I don't really care what it has to say," and then slowly I began to think, "I want us to start our devotionals together."  So we started back this past week and what do ya know, the first devotional's title was, "Believing God's Promises When the Unexpected Happens."

The Devotional covered Genesis 22, the story of Abraham and Issac.  I've read this story hundreds of time as a child and as an adult.  I've always thought of it as a great lesson of how we should obey God, but after reading this writers take I realized there is a difference between obeying and believing God.  Yes Abraham was obeying God's when he took his son up on the hill to be sacrificed, but more importantly he was believing God.  The book of Hebrews 11:17-19, says Abraham believed God's promises so strongly that he reasoned God would even bring Isaac back from the dead if necessary because God had promised him that through Issac there would come a great nation. Huh, I'd never thought of it that way.  This story is more of a story of belief than obedience. 

So I guess it helped me to realize that while I can try and obey God all day long there is more to it.  I must believe his promises because he's God and he doesn't lie.  It's one of those "duh" concepts that I know, but needed to be reminded of again.  And while God has not promised Stephen and I a child, he has promised that he will make all things work for the good of those who love him and so I will continue to work towards believe that!  And I use the word work because while I know this to be true in my heart, sometimes there is a disconnect between there and my head.