When the darkness settles in, we choose Him because we know Him.

And when he can no longer feel the truth, he shall not therefore die. He lives because God is true; and he is able to know that he lives because he knows, having once understood the word that God is truth. He believes in the God of former vision, lives by that word therefore, when all is dark and there is no vision. -George MacDonald

When we can no longer feel the excitement of our first discovery of God’s Goodness, when all the emotions are stripped away, and we stand face to face with this broken world; we don’t panic because we know Him. We receive His salvation and forgiveness and we don’t ask to carry more or less than He has placed in front of us. 

Our human reaction is to reason from our earthbound perspective, to figure ‘it’ out, whatever that ‘it’ may be.

I’m really beginning to believe that Abraham’s most practical application of his faith in the potential sacrifice of Isaac was his willingness to not forward think. He simply obeyed. I know it seems very unlikely from our perspective, but what if Abraham simply took the Lord’s command and obeyed without considering how it would play out. I know the writer of Hebrews speculates that Abraham probably thought God would simply raise Isaac from the dead – but in all fairness that is speculation. Maybe, just maybe, through Abraham’s intimate walk with God for the previous 30 years, Abraham was finally learning to trust beyond his own understanding. Maybe it was as simple as Abraham choosing God’s way because Abraham knew God, intimately.

To not have to always be calculating the next move, to receive our instructions for the day, trusting who God is instead of who we are, and simply obeying, is Freedom. Easier said than done right? But that’s no reason to settle for less. When we find ourselves calculating and playing out situations in our heads, we can give those ‘things’ to the Lord and simply return our focus back to His completeness and promises… and we can do this 100 times a day if necessary, so that! Even when the darkness settles in, we choose Him because we know Him.