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In verse 18 it is Abraham’s turn to speak.

“And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” “Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him”.
(Gen 17: 18-19)

Although Abraham is promised a son by completely normal family descent, he requests that Ishmael his other son born previously via the servant woman Hagar, although not part of that original promise might also be blessing and not suffer. God reply is, “let me reiterate Sarah your wife is still the one who is going to bear you a son and you are to call him Isaac and It is with him I will establish the everlasting covenant”. So, what then about Ishmael, Let’s find out next verse.

“And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation”.
(Gen. 17: 20)

So, God says, don’t worry, I won’t forget about Ishmael, I will bless him in his own way. However, I am reminding you of and renewing my covenant with regard to you and your son Isaac.   Here it comes. Next Verse.

“But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him”.
(Gen. 17: 21-22)

God reminds him that He is going to do something that is humanly impossible through him. You are going to have a son by Sarah and you're going to happen even though you're 100 this year and by the way also don’t forget to call him Isaac. You can't get any more specific than that, and when he had finished speaking with Abraham, God leaves him. Verse 23

“On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him”.
(Gen. 17: 23)

The passage says Abraham took all the men in the household and has them circumcised, just as God requested. God had made a call and set a challenge upon Abrahams life and Abraham responds I’d like to take a moment to say something the importance of rising to the challenges God presents us in order to live a motivated and robust life both physically and spiritually. Have you ever noticed how a great many people who are suffering from anxiety or depression become trapped in cycles of wrong thinking? What does this tell us about how we can be helped or encouraged to escape from that pattern of living? My recommendation is to think about the fears and stresses in your life and layout what you are anxious about before God, in some detail. What is it that they are afraid of, or what do you think might happen if things go the way you are afraid of? Good therapist and councilors often encouraged people to break them down into small problems, manageable problems. Then with help, in a controlled supported way, they will often begin to help you expose yourself to the things that they're afraid of. Interestingly what happens isn't that people get any less afraid or begin to ignore their problems. What happens is they become braver in confronting them. Now that might sound like the same thing, but it’s not quite the same thing. If we just got less afraid it would be like we were no longer recognizing that the world can still be a stressful and even harmful place. However, the Bible tells us that rather than getting less afraid we can by trusting in God begin to get braver. What that means is we can still recognize the world is just the same as it was. The truth remains that there are still some perils out there, but you no longer need to allow yourself to be paralyzed by fear of those risks. It turns out that we have been created in such a way as there is something positive in us that responds to making a sacrifice and taking on a challenge voluntarily. Because by doing so we begin to grow and thrive as a consequence. 

Apparently, the academic evidence and findings are quite clear. Repeated experiments show that if you impose what is called a stressor on two groups of people. Group one who are not voluntarily enrolled in the stressful situation. The other group two, who are pre informed and take on the stressful situation voluntarily. The people who are pre-informed (Group 2) those willing take up the challenge voluntarily use a whole different strategy to deal with it. Because by willingly approaching the challenges we face in life we can utilize the part of our thinking that's associated with problem solving, rational thinking and faith. Not the area of the brain associated with fear. (Fight or flight it’s often called). The benefit of willingly stepping up to the challenges even the sufferings God allows in our lives means we are less likely to become defensive or aggressive or even withdrawn. 

The Abrahamic version of rising to the challenge is much more associated with positive emotions and much less associated with holding on to negative thought patterns. The called to move forthrightly forward into the strange and the unknown enables us to choose a more satisfying way of living. I hate to break this to you but even if your advanced in years, God still calls you to adventure, no matter what age you are. As Christians, I believe we are all called to be in the group of people who willingly accept life’s challenges and the call of God in our lives. We will see how Abraham responds to that call and challenge to approach things in that way is taken up in the next episode.