Are you there, God? It’s me, Abraham.

Dear God,
I got your message today about you wanting me to go somewhere. I don’t know where it is I’m going or why I’m going. And you want me to leave my family and my house, all that I know…well, I’m not so sure about that. I’ll go but I’m going to take my wife, my father and my nephew and all of my employees and if you don’t mind, all of my possessions. I’ll obey you though, Lord…

Dear God,
Things are kind of hard right now. First my father passes away and then I used Sarai’s beauty to get in good with Pharaoh. He found out that Sarai was not my sister and he has sent us away. But I did get very rich, Lord, and I took my riches with me. Lot and I have parted ways. We weren’t able to share the land. Lot’s men are very wicked, they are sinners…There was a battle. Lot was captured but I saved him. Isn’t that great?!?
Sarai has not been able to conceive still, Lord. She gave me her maid, Hagar, to start a family with. Hagar had a son. His name is Ishmael. This did not make Sarai happy and she was abusive towards Hagar. Understandable, I guess but I thought you were going to give us an heir…

Dear God,
You gave me a son!!! You kept your word. You got me to this new place safe and sound and then you gave me a son! We named him Isaac. Sarah and I are so happy to be parents and we are glad to serve you…

Dear God,
Why are you testing me? Didn’t you see my faith when I went to Canaan by your commands? Sure, I took some of my family and my employees and yes, all of my possessions but I needed to. I surely can’t survive on nothing and I wouldn’t have had anyone to talk to had I not brought Sarah and Lot. I can’t believe you want me to sacrifice my beloved son, Isaac. It just doesn’t seem right, Lord.
But I will do it. If it pleases you, I will do it…
Dear God,
Thank you for stopping me from hurting my son. You are a faithful and honest god. You have kept your word from the beginning. You have blessed me in so many ways. I’m sorry for ever doubting you and for not fully following your commands…

The story of Abraham…I got a lot from this Bible study and not just because of Sarah.
It taught me to give 100% to God; mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. I need to leave it all behind and journey on to my inheritance of good health. I can’t take my old habits and expect new changes. God shows us this with Abraham. He took his family and his possessions although God asked him not to. I’m sure life would have been a lot easier for him, had he just 100% trusted in God.
We need to allow God’s plans to work. We often hear, “On God’s time.” If Abraham had just been patient, Sarah would have become pregnant and Hagar would have never been involved. But due to disbelief and impatience, Abraham conceived a son with Hagar. This angered Sarah and caused her to be abusive to Hagar. All things that I’m sure did not please God. But still God kept His promise. Even though we may do things that go against God’s plan for good health, He still picks us up and keeps His promises.
And I often wonder why there are things around me that tempt me to make unhealthy choices? Just get rid of them, God, please!! They are there to test us, to show our strength and our trust in the Lord. Good health is important and not easy. It is a slow process and we have to trust that God will bring us there. Let’s prove to Him that we know He is there every step we take towards our inheritance of strong, healthy bodies and minds. Let us also remember that there is nothing to hard for the Lord.

Let’s now read from Romans 4:13-25 (MSG).
13-15That famous promise God gave Abraham—that he and his children would possess the earth—was not given because of something Abraham did or would do. It was based on God's decision to put everything together for him, which Abraham then entered when he believed. If those who get what God gives them only get it by doing everything they are told to do and filling out all the right forms properly signed, that eliminates personal trust completely and turns the promise into an ironclad contract! That's not a holy promise; that's a business deal. A contract drawn up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine print only makes sure that you will never be able to collect. But if there is no contract in the first place, simply a promise—and God's promise at that—you can't break it.
16This is why the fulfillment of God's promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God's promise arrives as pure gift. That's the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father—that's reading the story backward. He is our faith father.
17-18We call Abraham "father" not because he got God's attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!"
19-25Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right." But it's not just Abraham; it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God. I think the scripture speaks for itself.

Let us pray.