“Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.” Hebrews 11:19
“Christianity requires too much blind faith, I need reason and evidence behind what I believe.”
Have you ever heard someone dismiss Christianity with a statement like this? In the eyes of many, the Christian faith is a leap into the unknown, a belief that goes beyond rationality, like the “wish upon a star” fairy tale. If I’m honest, faith sometimes feels that way to me too.
But biblical faith is anything but a blind wish. The verse above employs an interesting word — reasoned. The Greek word translated as ‘reasoned’ here is logizomai. A note in Strong’s Concordance, an index of all the words used in the Bible, reads: “If I ‘logizomai’ or reckon that my bank book has $25 in it, then it has $25 in it. Otherwise I am deceiving myself. This word refers to facts not suppositions.”
Abraham’s faith that God would fulfill his promise despite the fact God asked him to sacrifice Isaac, came from a well-reasoned consideration of the facts. God had promised to multiply Abraham’s lineage through Isaac, and time and again he had shown himself to be powerful and trustworthy.
We act with similar faith every day. We have faith that the chair we sit on will hold up. We trust our vehicles to carry us from home to office. These faith choices aren’t blind, but reasonable since these objects have already done the very things we trust them to do. As long as they’re still in working order our trust in them is warranted.
What matters, then, is the object of our faith. Abraham reckoned that the object of his faith, God, was worthy of it. Will we?
Lord, you have indeed shown yourself faithful and trustworthy, most prominently through your Son, Jesus. Forgive me for the times I’ve failed to trust you. Build the strength of my faith by allowing me to see and know you more clearly, and give me opportunities to explain to those who don’t yet know you that faith in you is not blind, but reasonable. Amen
Read: Psalm 19:1-4 and 1 Corinthians 15:3-8
By Jason Weimer
Used by Permission
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