When Trouble Comes

Some further notes from Paul Tripp’s talk at our church on Wednesday…

Look at Hebrews 11:17-19:

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your descendants shall be called.’ He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.

It makes no sense to us. It seems to be lunacy, absolute folly even to consider the command to offer up that one miracle son that God had promised and then finally given.

But it says, “when he was tested.” There is no extricating God from this mess—He is the one who is actually testing Abraham. This is no sadistic “pop quiz” kind of test like you have in junior high. Here God is refining, tempering, doing something good in him.

I am yet in need of refinement, so grace will take forms of violence and pain as God works to bring my heart closer and closer to Him. God will take you where you haven’t intended to go … to produce in you that which you could not produce on your own. This is uncomfortable grace.

The psalmist says, “May the bones You have broken rejoice.” In order to purify your heart, God will break your bones. Relief and release are ultimately coming, but right now what I most desperately need is refinement. I am tempted to be satisfied right where I am … but God won’t leave me there.

Many times we cry, Where is the grace of God? And we’re getting it. Loving arms of redemption wrapped around us when we could never deserve it. We are so content with where we are; we’re so arrogant. We’re so good at swindling ourselves out of a deeper and sweeter life. I have a perverse ability to feel okay about things in my life that I should not feel okay about. God wants you to have nothing but Him because He is your only hope.

If I were “on the joystick,” I would choose not to go through difficult times. Yet when they come, we meet God in ways we would not have done otherwise.

Looking at Abraham’s example, here are three things to embrace when the difficult comes:

1. God’s promises (Hebrews 11:18). Abraham did believe God would be faithful to His promise. Do you rest in God’s promises? Do you see them as reliable in every circumstance? The words in Hebrew in the Genesis account where Abraham builds the altar (on which he will offer his son) indicate a man at rest—he is working neatly and in order. Abraham’s rest in the promises of God is visible even in how he constructs the altar he did not understand.

2. God’s power (Hebrews 11:19). Abraham considered God strong enough even to raise Isaac from the dead, if that’s what He chose. Do you believe the remarkable, creative, sovereign power of God? Remember the story of David and Goliath. The Israelites looked at the equation Little Us vs. Big Giants and trembled. But David looked at the equation as Little Giant vs. Huge God and did not fear.

3. God’s faithfulness. Abraham was convinced that God would not turn from His purpose. In that moment of crisis is not where faith quits—it’s where faith lives. Our hope is not in a system of redemption but in a great Redeemer. And because of His kindness to us in Jesus, this moment, albeit painful, is grace. I know it because His face toward me is grace. Let my heart cry, “Give me the grace to receive this as grace … and be glad.” We can’t work up faith; it’s a gift.

Lord, let me truly sing, My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.