Journal Entry ~ 03/12/18

But the LORD said to David my father, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. - 2 Chronicles 6:8

I heard a powerful message preached yesterday on Abraham’s sacrificial offering of his son Isaac, and it struck me - sometimes God says no to test and grow our faith. God wants to see what’s in our heart. 

Faith is more of a muscle than a mindset.  It needs opportunities to grow.  Dr. Jim Loehr said “Expose a muscle to ordinary demand and it won’t grow. With age it will actually lose strength. The limiting factor in building any “muscle” is that many of us back off at the slightest hint of discomfort. To meet increased demand, we must learn to systematically build and strengthen muscle wherever our strength is insufficient. Any form of stress that prompts discomfort has the potential to expand our capacity.” When God said no to Abraham, when he asked Abraham to sacrifice his treasure, he was stretching and growing his faith. He wanted to test Abraham’s priorities. The interesting thing is that Abraham would not have been handle the no earlier in his life, but God had been working his faith muscle for years to the place where God was his priority even over his son Isaac. God wanted to see what was in Abraham’s heart when he asked Him to sacrifice his treasure - that was the purpose of His no. But then God said yes. 

God is after what’s in our hearts. He is constantly allowing situations into our lives that test what is truly in our hearts, and giving us opportunities to grow and strengthen our faith. Sometimes His no is simply to see where priorities fall, to reveal to us what are treasures truly are so that we can continue to do the transformational work He has started in us. He knows what our treasure is, He just wants to reveal that to us. That’s how he grows our faith muscle. 


Press on ~ you are loved 💗

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