I really don’t want to live by faith. I want to live by sight.

I want to know how things are going to work out. Actually, I don’t want to know how things are going to work out–I want things to already be worked out. Just seeing how things will be worked out means they’re not worked out now. That means I’m not comfortable.

And that’s my goal. Comfort.

It’s a bad goal though, because it doesn’t align with God’s purposes and ways.

When I meet with couples to do pre-marital counseling, I make sure they understand God’s purposes for marriage. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be happy and fulfilled within marriage, but if that’s the primary or only goal then that couple is in trouble. God has other, higher purposes for marriage.

So seeking a life of comfort is a bad goal because it doesn’t align with God’s purposes.

God has called us to a life of faith, a life of trusting Him, a life of not knowing how things will work out. It’s a life that believes God despite our circumstances or feelings or the opinions of others. Of course to believe God, I must know what He says. About Himself. About me. About life. It’s essential that I know and believe and act on the truth.

Abraham was a man of great faith. He wasn’t perfect by any means, but He lived out a pattern of trusting God. Hebrews 11:17-19 says:

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.

God had promised a son to Abraham and Sarah. Through that son, God would build a nation and bless the world. And yet, more than two decades after the promise, they still don’t have a son. Finally, twenty-five years after the promise is made, their son, Isaac, is born. Abraham is 100 and Sarah is 90 when Isaac is born!

I’ve mentioned it before, but try to not get hung up on “How?” or “When?” God is going to do something. Most of the time, we can’t possibly imagine how God will accomplish something. And almost always, God is not going to do something when we want Him to. If He did, faith wouldn’t be required. And well, God’s ways involve faith. God likes to be trusted. Hebrews 11:6 says:

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Let’s go back for a moment to the passage where God is instructing Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. It says that Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead. The Greek word for reasoned is “logizamai.” It means to reckon, to count, to compute, to calculate, to weigh the reasons, to deliberate, to decide.

Abraham’s eyes were on the One who had made the promise. He weighed what God had said and decided that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead if that’s what was necessary.

And so he obeyed.

And God stopped him from sacrificing Isaac.

Have you ever reasoned? Have you stopped long enough to consider what exactly it is you believe about God?

Can He be trusted? Is He good? Is He all-powerful? Does He really love you? Are His commands meant for your good?

You need to decide what you believe about Him. It’s the first step in walking by faith. You will never entrust yourself to someone who doesn’t have your best in mind.

Does God have your best in mind? Is He worthy of Your trust?

Take some time to reason. Deliberate. And then decide.

It’s the first step in living by faith.