When Dreams Go Up In
Smoke
Would I have given up? I hope
not. When Thomas Carlyle, a noted 19ht century historian, was struggling and
broke, he poured his life into writing a massive history of the French
Revolution. The book, he felt, would
make or break him. After finally
finishing it, he lent his handwritten manuscript – many hundreds of pages- to a
close friend, who carelessly left it lying about his apartment. Incredibly, his maid thought it was a
scrap-paper and used it to light a fire.
(To make matters worse, Carlyle had a habit of destroying his notes
after completing a work.)
How can you start over after you’ve lost something very precious? When a long anticipated dream or a long
worked-for accomplishment goes up in smoke, what should you do? God’s Word directs us to do this: do what Abraham did.
For more years than most of us can
expect to live, Abraham and Sarah yearned for a child of their own. God promised them a son, but even after that,
they waited 25 more years before Isaac was actually born. Isaac means laughter, and the joy he brought his folks is a matter of
historical record. But that joy must
have been eclipsed when God commanded Abraham to “take now your son, your only
son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as
a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (Genesis
22:2)
Early the next morning, despite what must have been impenetrable
bewilderment, he set out to obey the
Lord. On the third day, he saw not
only the site of the sacrifice but apparently the hope of the resurrection,
too. He told his servants to wait there
while he and his son went to worship the Lord and to return. Here is what God’s Word says to do when,
like Abraham, you don’t yet see through the smoke of your circumstance…
1. Obey
the Lord. Do whatever He says to do;
be whatever He says to be. Vetoing or
ignoring His commands is always disastrous.
2.
Worship
the Lord. Humble yourself before the
Lord, acknowledging His superior
wisdom, justice, mercy and might. We
destroy anything we refuse to let Him rule; we release to God’s miraculous
touch, anything we surrender to Him.
3.
Trust the
Lord. Remember that the Lord’s
purposes extend far beyond our eyesight or
understanding. We react to our small perceptions; the
Lord sees not only the beginning, but also the end of our situation. He knows how to use it to bless multitudes of
people for many generations.
God, of course, gave Abraham a
substitutionary sacrifice at the perfect time. And Thomas Carlyle, by the way, believed his
“invisible schoolmaster” was saying to rewrite it better. He did. And it became his first bestseller.
Terry Risser
Consider reading the Word:
Copyright 2014 - Terry Risser
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