When God Interrupts Your Life • Hebrews 11:8-19
By Melody Mercer
The term “life interruptions” means different things to different people. To a Type A personality, it’s not what they want to see coming. These people have ambition, drive, a strong sense of urgency, and are often impatient. They don’t have time for interruptions. To a teacher, it’s just a regular part of the school day. The first day of school, I tell my children that FLEXIBILITY is our middle name. How to deal with interruptions is what they don’t teach you about in college. For most of the men and women we read about in the Bible, it was a part of daily life.
Interruptions are inevitable, and our next series of lessons are about how we handle them in our lives. Each lesson will look at a different type of interruption, and how we can have a Christ-centered attitude as we navigate them. The way interruptions are handled, ultimately shows who is in charge. There can be very different outcomes whether we are trusting God, or if we are making our own plans. Our first topic is simply, “When God interrupts your life.”
A verse that I didn’t find until I was in my 40s is Proverbs 16:9, “A person’s heart plans his way, but the LORD determines his steps” (CSB). We can make plans for ourselves all day long, but if they aren’t God’s plans, they probably won’t come to fruition. I have a feeling that I will be referencing this verse many times during this series. In 2014, I had the life interruption of breast cancer. Thankfully, it has been 10 years, and I am still cancer free, but God used that time to remind me of His faithfulness and how important my witness is. If we are obediently trusting God when an interruption comes, our first thought should be, “What is God going to show or teach me through this?” My goal through those cancer months was to have a positive attitude and glorify God through everything that happened.
Our scripture passage is Hebrews 11:8-19, “the faith chapter.” God had called Abraham out of the city of Ur of the Chaldeans in Mesopotamia. This was a polytheistic civilization, including a moon god. They were not worshipping the one true God. God definitely interrupted Abraham’s life, and used Abraham to begin His plan of redemption. Abraham had total faith. He heard God’ voice and the plan and started “walking.” Abraham accepted God’s calling with an unfinished faith. As Abraham continued to walk with God, his faith grew stronger, even though he wouldn’t physically see all the promises from God. Two promises that Abraham did see were the birth of his son Isaac, and the promise of the land of Canaan.
Abraham and Sarah had waited 25 years for God’s promise of “offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and as innumerable as the grains of sand along the seashore” (v. 12 CSB). Several times during this journey, they had taken matters into their own hands, but God remained faithful to Abraham. I can testify that waiting on God is so hard, and I have to constantly remind myself that even though I can’t see Him working, He is. He goes before us, and if we will faithfully wait on Him, His blessings will always be more than we could have imagined.
“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20 NIV).
You have heard the old saying, “It’s easier said than done.” According to the Jewish historian, Josephus, Isaac was around 25 years old when God told Abraham to take him to Moriah and sacrifice him on one of the mountains. Excuse me, what??? It is easy for us to read that and think what a simple chore that was, but NO. How much did Abraham agonize over that journey? The questions that went through his mind were probably endless. The faith that Abraham had is mind blowing to me.
“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac…He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead” (v. 17a, 19a CSB)
Abraham’s faith had grown so that he was able to trust God when his faith was tested. He fully trusted God to fulfill his promise of “a great nation” (Genesis 12:2a CSB).
Mercer is a member of First Church, Jackson.
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