Genesis 24:2-3 “Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he owned, " Please place your hand under my thigh, ³ and I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live,”

Serving God requires not only a few choices, but also a demanding, rigorous application of God’s will to one’s life. To do this we must study and learn from the scriptures. Abraham however did not have the scriptures. All he could do was that which he knew of God’s desires from walking with God over the many years of his life. Abraham had begun this journey following God as a young man heeding the call of some deity, which he later learned was Jehovah. He had learned to trust God with everything, to obey God, and to know that God is perfect. Over the many years of his life, Abraham had communed with God, and now he was old with few years before him before he joined the wife whom he had just buried.

Abraham decided to do something radical. He had seen his first son Ishmael marry an Egyptian. He had seen people who walked with God turn away due to their spouse, and so Abraham decided to find his special son - his gift son – Isaac a wife from his own family structure rather than the unrighteous Canaanites around them.

To do this however, he called his oldest servant, the one whom had been with Abraham longer than all the others and who knew Abraham the best. Even though this was the servant who prior to Ishmael and Isaac’s birth had stood to inherit Abraham’s fortunes (Gen 15:2), Abraham trusted Eliezer with everything. This man was sworn to go look for Isaac’s wife among Abraham’s relatives, and yet also sworn not to take Isaac with him.

Abraham’s reason to not let Isaac go is summed up in God’s promise to give the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants. Abraham thus wanted Isaac to think of this land as home. If Isaac went with the servant there was a possibility that Isaac would not return and raise a family back in the land of Ur. Abraham, even though he had walked with God for many years was still trying to achieve God’s promise. If Isaac had gone back to Ur, we know that God would have brought him back to the land of promise somehow. There is still this desire in Abraham to try and help God’s promise along. A lack of trust maybe? Perhaps Abraham did not even realize this was a lack of faith.

Abraham wanted to have someone for his son who would be a help-mate, someone who would not lead Isaac astray. Abraham walked with God his entire life and so fully enmeshed his desire for Isaac’s welfare with God’s. This was a man of faith, and yet he still tried to maintain some control. There was still a lack of trust that God could return Isaac to the promised land if Isaac left.

Charles Spurgeon speaks of an evening when he was riding home after a heavy day's work. He felt weary and depressed, when as suddenly as a lightning flash came this verse, "My grace is sufficient for thee." He said, "I should think it is, Lord," and he burst out laughing. It seemed to make unbelief so absurd.

"It was as if some little fish, being very thirsty, was troubled about drinking the river dry, and the river says, 'Drink away, little fish, my stream is sufficient for thee.'

"Or, it seemed like a little mouse in the granaries of Egypt after seven years of plenty fearing it might die of famine, and Joseph might say, 'Cheer up, little mouse, my granaries are sufficient for thee.'

"Again, I imagined a man away up on yonder mountain saying to himself, 'I fear I shall exhaust all the oxygen in the atmosphere.'But the earth might say, 'Breathe away, oh man, and fill thy lungs ever; my atmosphere is sufficient for thee.'"

Do we not trust God with everything down to providing the right air that we need to breathe?

No matter how well or how long we have known God, we are still able to not fully trust God. We are human and are bound to fail.

It is only through the grace of God we can still survive. In what areas of our lives is faith lacking? Can we even recognise our own lack of faith?

God’s grace is sufficient for us. For all our needs even despite our lack of faith.