Abraham - Humanity, Emotions and Faith - Part 1

And God said, "Abram, you think you're getting old, you just steady yourself. You lean on me. I will take care of your needs."

Gracious Father in heaven, we give thanks for Your word. It nourishes us, it encourages and enlightens us. And we're grateful that today we have the freedom to open the word of God and study. And now we pray, teach us by Your Spirit. May we learn far more through the Holy Spirit's ministry than what any preacher might say to us. And help us to apply it and practice it. Meet our needs today and help us to accomplish Your will. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

When you live by faith, it does not deny your humanity. When you live by faith, it doesn't make you less than human. You know, people who live by faith have feelings, they have real feelings, just like everybody else. But their faith enables them to overcome their feelings and to use these feelings to the glory of God. I find that some Christians say, "Well, I suppress my emotions." And that could be a dangerous thing because if you suppress your emotions, those emotions might show up somewhere else. Other people say, "Well, I express my emotions. If I want to shout, I shout; if I want to get angry, I get angry; if I want to tell somebody the truth, I tell them the truth, and it's over with." No, it isn't over with, because you've done damage to other people and you've done damage to yourself.

I don't think that the person who lives by faith suppresses emotions or expresses emotions without any control, but rather confesses these emotions to the Lord and says, "Lord, I'm afraid. Lord, I'm angry. Lord, I'm impatient." We confess these to the Lord, and then we let God possess them so that He might be able to give us the victory. You see, God has given to us in our very nature the emotions that we need to live. There's nothing wrong with the right kind of fear. Whenever I'm crossing a busy highway, I have a certain amount of fear, and I'm very careful. There's nothing wrong with a certain amount of fear; fear can get your adrenaline going and get you going. But we must be very careful lest our emotions get a hold of us instead of we getting a hold of our emotions.

Now, Abraham in Genesis 15 has some very real emotions. Fear: Genesis 15:1. After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward." Impatience: Genesis 15:2. But Abram said, "Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless?" The suggestion here is, "I'm getting older and older and getting away from the opportunity I'll have of having a child, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus."

So we have fear, we have impatience. Look at Genesis 15:7. And He said to him, "I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it." And he said, "Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?" Now we have uncertainty. And in Genesis 15:12, a horror and great darkness fell upon him. Imagine what Abram felt like when that happened. Have you ever been through the horror of a great darkness? Someone says, "Well, if you're walking in the light, that won't happen." Abram was a man of faith. He was in the will of God. He was doing what God wanted him to do. And yet here were all of these emotions that appeared in his life: fear, impatience, uncertainty, the horror of a great darkness. And yet he never had been closer to God in his life.

Well, this is the thing we have to study today: How does God deal with our emotions so that He does not make us less than human? So that we do not suppress them or express them, but rather we confess them to God and let Him possess them and meet the need in our lives. I suppose more family problems have been caused by uncontrolled emotions than perhaps anything else. More church problems have been caused by uncontrolled emotions. We just don't act like God's children; we act like animals and just do what we want to do. Well, Abram knew how to handle this situation, didn't he? Let's consider now these emotions in his life and find out how God gave him the victory through faith.

You see, Abraham is now going through a fourth test. God had tested him through circumstances in Genesis 12 when that famine came to the land. Then God tested his faith through people in Genesis 13, his problem with Lot and Lot's herdsmen. And then in Genesis 14, the test of things. Abraham was offered all of the wealth of Sodom and he turned it down. Now we have the test of feelings. And there's something different about this particular test: it's on the inside.

By the way, most of our defeats are on the inside. If we're unable to control the kingdom on the inside, we're not going to have much success dealing with problems on the outside. You see, most of the things in our lives we cannot control. We can't control the weather, the stock market. We can't control the flow of traffic. We can't control what other people say and do. We sometimes have a hard time controlling our own children. And part of the problem is that we think we can play God in people's lives, and we can't.

Now, what God is saying to me in Genesis 15 is this: You take care of the kingdom on the inside and you've got it made. When you have that inner kingdom—your own heart and mind and will, your feelings—when you have that under control, then we can work together to take care of the other things. My problem is that I want to change circumstances and people and things so that I feel good down inside. Whereupon God immediately uses circumstances and people and things to create problems down inside, and I've got to learn how to deal with these very real feelings down inside.

Let's see what Abraham did. Genesis 15:1, we have his first emotion, and that's fear. After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward." Now, why would Abraham be afraid? He had just led his 318 soldiers out to battle. He had defeated the four kings, liberated the five kings, refused the loot. Why would Abraham be afraid?

Well, number one, this is a normal reaction to human beings after some time of stress and strain. I'm learning in my own life when to take time off. Now, some Christians have the idea that if you take time off, you're unspiritual. I don't think so. Our bodies are very human. Our bodies are made of clay. The Lord knows our frame; He remembers that we're dust. We think that we are steel, but we're not; we're dust. And I've learned that after a difficult Bible conference or after a difficult time of writing or traveling, I've got to take some time off. I need a parenthesis because if you aren't careful, the devil can get some of those emotions stirred up.

The Apostle Paul went through a similar experience. You say, "Well, Christians should never be afraid." A real conqueror is not afraid during the battle; he's afraid after the battle. Abraham was saying to himself, "Maybe those kings will come back. Maybe they'll bring a bigger army." He was a human being who had normal responses. 2 Corinthians 1:8, Paul says this: For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. That's 2 Corinthians 1:8, written by the Apostle Paul. He said, "I know what it is to come to a point of weariness and fear and despair." 2 Corinthians 7:5: For indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears. That's the Apostle Paul.

And so some of these super-spiritual people who tell us we should never have these emotional responses forget that we are human, and God knows that we are human. Now, to give into fear is to become discouraged and defeated. Elijah did that. He won that great victory on Mount Carmel, and then in 1 Kings 19, before you know it, he's running off. He's afraid. He's going to die. You know why? He was tired. God said, "Why don't you take a nap, Elijah?" So Elijah took a nap. And then God sent an angel down with some food. Elijah was weary, he was undernourished, and the angel baked him a cake—an angel food cake, I'm sure—and he fed him and said, "Go on back to sleep." Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap. You'd be a lot easier to live with.

You see, Abraham was going through fear because this is a normal reaction after a time of stress and strain, plus he was wondering, "Are those kings going to come back?" Now, what was God's answer to Abraham's fear? He said, "I AM." Do not be afraid, Abram. Now, anybody can say that, but God goes on to say, "I AM." You see, it's the presence of the Lord and all that He is that takes away fear. He gives us the assurance of His word.

This is the first time in the Bible we find the phrase "the word of the Lord came." I understand that it is used 245 times in the Old Testament. You find "the word of the Lord this" or "the word of the Lord that" nearly 250 times. Well, God said, "Abram, don't be afraid. I'm working out a plan in your life, and you're going to be what I want you to be and do what I want you to do, and I'm going to bless you and make you a blessing." The answer to fear is the presence of God. God said, "I AM. I am your shield, I am your exceedingly great reward. I am your protection, I am your provision, so stop being afraid." When you are afraid, open your Bible, let God talk to you. That's what God did with Abraham.

When you are afraid, open your Bible, let God talk to you. That's what God did with Abraham. Now He said, "I AM." I am what? I am your protection, your shield. I am your provision, your exceedingly great reward. He didn't say, "I am your rewarder." He didn't say, "I will give you a reward." He said, "I AM your reward." When you have God, you don't need what Sodom has to offer. When you have God, you don't need the spoils of the battle. He is your provision, He is your protection. When you know God through Jesus Christ, you have security and sufficiency, and that's all you need. When you have that, you have everything.

This is what the writer of Hebrews talked about in Hebrews 13:5: Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we may boldly say: "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?" That's a marvelous statement. The word of God says when you are afraid, just remember you have the great "I AM" saying to you, "Fear not."

Now, when you read the book of Genesis, you'll find that in Genesis 26:24, God said "fear not" to Isaac. In Genesis 46:3, He said "fear not" to Jacob. I like to read Isaiah 41 and 42 and 43 and notice all the "fear nots" that are there. Whenever you find yourself afraid, just read Isaiah 40, 41, 43 and notice how often God says, "Don't be afraid." I'm impressed with the fact that God spoke to him by his name. "Do not be afraid, Abram." God knows your name, God knows your needs, God knows your nature. God knows all about you. And He is able to take away the fear. God says, "I AM. You have My presence, you have My person. I am all that you need." Now when you have God, that's all you need, as the little girl said, "The Lord is my shepherd, what more shall I want?" Psalm 84:11: The Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.

Now, in Genesis 15:2-6, we find Abraham dealing with impatience. Oh, this speaks to me because I want my faith to grow, but the only way my faith can grow is by having my faith tested. And when my faith is tested, I get impatient. When something happens that doesn't go on schedule—because I'm a very scheduled person—I get impatient. And here is Abraham saying, "Lord God"—and that name means Sovereign Lord—"what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" He said, "Yes, I have God and that's all I want is God, but You have promised me a seed. You've promised me descendants. Now, when are You going to do this?" It's likely that Abraham had now been ten years walking with the Lord. He's getting older and Sarah's getting older. Abram said, "Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir."

Now notice once again, the word of the Lord came to him, saying—I like that. Whenever you've got a question, go to your Bible. Let the word of God talk to you. Abraham's concern was not for himself; he was concerned about God's plan. He knew that God could not work out the great plan of salvation unless God gave to him and Sarah a son. Now he's saying, "I wonder when is this going to happen?" He's wondering if perhaps Eliezer could be the one. But no, it's not Eliezer. Don't scheme. Faith is living without scheming.

Now, what's God's answer? "I WILL." Behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "This one"—He doesn't even name Eliezer—"this one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." That's the first time He tells Abraham, "I'm going to rejuvenate you. You're going to be the one who's going to be the father." And He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven." That's a good thing to do when you're discouraged. It's got to be dark to be able to see the stars. Some days get dark, don't they? We expect the nights to be dark, but sometimes the days get dark. And God says to you on those dark days, "Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."

Now, back in Genesis 13:14, God had taken Abraham out and told him to look. Lift up your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, westward. But here he was looking at the land. Now he's looking up at the sky. He says to him in Genesis 13, "For all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants, and I'm going to make your descendants as the dust of the earth." So when Abraham looked at the land, God said your descendants will be like the dust of the earth.

But in Genesis 15, Abraham is looking now toward heaven and He says to him, "Your descendants will be like the stars up there in the heavens." I understand that scientists estimate that there are more than 100 billion stars out there, and that seems rather conservative. He repeats this again in Genesis 22 and in Genesis 26. What did Abraham do? He believed God. Genesis 15:6: And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. What is God's answer to impatience? He says, "I WILL. I WILL." You see, when Abraham was afraid, God said, "I AM." Now Abraham is impatient, He says, "I WILL. I will give you a son, I will multiply your descendants, and I am the one who can do it because I am the great and the mighty God."

Every once in a while I need to just step out and look up. I think it was Emerson who said that if the stars came out only once every hundred years, people would spend all night standing staring at them. We take the stars for granted. Well, look up and remember God says, "I WILL." And Abraham believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. That verse is quoted in Galatians 3:6, Romans 4:3, and James 2:23. It's an important verse in the Bible; we'll consider it further in our next study. This little phrase "he believed in the Lord" literally means he said "amen" to the Lord. To believe in the Old Testament, the Hebrew language means to steady yourself by leaning on something. And God said, "Abram, you think you're getting old, you just steady yourself. You lean on me. I will take care of your needs." So what do we do with our fears and our impatience? We confess them to the Lord, we turn them over to Him, and we let Him by faith give us the victory.

[Interview]

Now, let's join Back to the Bible CEO Arnie Cole in the studio with Warren Wiersbe.

So Warren, how do you distinguish between trials and temptations?

Well, that's a good question, and a lot of people get confused there. The easiest way to answer it is trials come from God, they are an act of His love, and He gets the glory. Temptation comes from the devil, and temptation is accompanied by lies. The devil says to us, "Oh, you can get away with this. Other people have got away with it; you can get away with it." So then we do what we shouldn't do, and then he comes and says, "You're never going to get away with this," and he accuses us. So I think the major difference is that God tests us because He loves us and wants us to grow. The devil tempts us because he hates us and he wants us to fail. Most children have a hard time with this matter of obedience and what obedience does to their character. They have to learn that we have to have trials if we're going to grow. A baby that never has exercise is never going to mature properly. So Hebrews 12 hits the nail on the head: You do it by faith, looking unto Jesus. Because Jesus was tempted, and every temptation we go through He's been through, so all we have to do is scream for help and keep on going.