Feelings, Nothing More Than Feelings?

 “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 

Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead,

and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.”

Hebrews 11:17-19

 

 

 

 

Did you ever pull an “all-nighter”?

I mean back in your school days when you and some friends would cram for a test by staying up all night studying the material.

Hopefully, you were wise enough not to make the study time the very night before the exam!

I wonder if Abraham stayed up the night before he prepared to offer Isaac his son to the Lord.  

I wonder if the ‘reasoning’ spoken of in the Hebrews text above was the result of a sleepless night on Abraham’s part.

I wonder if he spent the hours between sunset and sunrise tossing and turning; trying to comprehend Gods’ command to him.Cross references:

Maybe, but somehow I don’t think so.

He is called faithful Abraham after all.

I think that maybe, just maybe, his faith in God allowed him to sleep like a baby.  

Of course I can’t prove that he did.

Nonetheless, what lesson can we glean from the example of Gods’ test in Abrahams’ life?

Well, what we need to do, as Abraham showed us, is to live our lives from the faithfulness of God and not from our feelings.

God is eternal and unchangeable.

My feelings concerning various things in my life are not at all eternal and unchangeable.

I can move from feelings of indifference to passionate concern in an instant.

You and I must live our lives, not ruled by our feelings but, ruled by faith in God.

Yes, we are told that Abraham ‘reasoned’ but it was a reasoning anchored in the faith of God and not in his feelings.

Abraham offered his son by faith and in doing so, he received his son back.

Don’t let feeling cloud the choices you make in your life.

Let faith in God guide you!