The world just doesn't get it. You can try and explain it, you can shout until you are blue in the face... but it just doesn't make sense. As human beings our entire world view is based around, well... us. Everything we've been taught since infancy tells us to look out for ourselves, to do things our way, to build our own kingdom. As I was reading through the life of Abraham, however, I was struck with the simplicity of surrendering to God's will instead of our own. Easy, no? Simple? yes. Every time that Abraham submits to God's will, He receives God's blessing. Every time he tries to do things on his own, he fails miserably. Period.
He leaves his homeland and receives the promised blessing of God on him and his descendants. He trusts God's promises and receives great wealth, is able to defeat an entire army and rescue his nephew Lot, and has a child when it was physically impossible for both him and Sarah to conceive. God blesses him so much that when it comes time to bury his wife, he goes to the Hittites, the people in whose land he was the foreigner and sojourner to ask if he can buy some land to bury her. Their response? "You have been like a prince among us..." and they offer to give him whatever land he needs. Here is someone on whom God's hand rests so clearly that even the pagans around him can see it!
Yet Abraham is far from perfect. In the middle of trusting God and receiving His blessing, he gets impatient and has a son with one of his servants - an act which causes turmoil not just in his immediate family, but in future generations as well. Twice he prostitutes his wife to save his own skin by claiming she is his sister (a misleading half-truth), and both times God has to get through to a pagan king to rescue Sarah and return her to her knuckle-head husband. Through it all, however, God remains faithful to HIs promises, and blesses Abraham in spite of his failings.
Sometimes we make things more complicated than they really are. When faced with a choice or a problem we run to everyone and everything else first, then consult God as a last resort. But in every season of life, every situation we face, every choice we encounter, the first and often times the only question we really need to answer is: what is God's will in this situation? The hard part often isn't knowing God's will, it's having the humility and the patience to follow it.
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