The faith of my husband

My husband builds decks and puts on roofs. Suffering under a sustained sleep deficit, last night before bed he prayed that God would give him a good night’s sleep. This morning I asked him if he had slept. He said not much. Then when we prayed together he thanked God for the amount of sleep he got, and he assumed that because God answers prayers, that little bit of sleep he had would be enough to get him through the day. It’s like Abraham assuming that since God told him explicitly that Isaac would be his heir, then if God was now telling him to kill Isaac, it must mean that He is planning to raise him from the dead afterward. Because, of course, God is reliable.

“… he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ He considered that God was able even to raise him even from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back (Hebrews 11:17–19, ESV).

This is Christian reasoning at its finest.

Doubting God is somewhere Abraham never goes. Doubting God is somewhere my husband never goes. He will consider every other possibility under the sun before he goes there. And he has never gone there once in our two-year marriage.

My husband reminded me of the times in the Old Testament when the Spirit of God would come upon a man with superhuman strength for a specific task. Perhaps he would do that for him today. Samson came to mind, but others also. David records this testimony of the Lord’s help as King Saul and his armies were hunting him down like an animal through the caves and wilderness:

“He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights. He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. … You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip; I pursued my enemies and destroyed them …” (2 Samuel 22:34–38, ESV).

Outsized trust in God isn’t just for Old Testament people. You will perhaps remember Pvt. Daniel Jackson of West Fork, Tenn., with the 2nd Ranger Battalion featured in Saving Private Ryan. Specialty: sharpshooting. Climbing the bell tower in the SS-infested French town of Ramelle, he prayed, “O my God I trust in thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not my enemies triumph over me.”

As high as your faith is today, it could always be a little bit higher.

Andrée Seu Peterson’s Won’t Let You Go Unless You Bless Me, regularly $12.95, is now available from WORLD for only $5.95.