http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/index.php?p=493

Faith. From my current perspective it looks as if it is this which lies at the heart of my spiritual crises. And my approach to the problem has been rather analytical, a matter of sorting through mental and emotional associations to isolate the key issues -- if only I can find a definitive answer on "this" then I can walk forward, establishing myself in a framework of faith, and "life will then be good". Of course, I rarely admit to myself that I am quite so naïve, but at some level there is this child-like hope that if I can only have this one thing -- the answer to my question -- then all will be well. Call it "mental acquisitiveness".

Let's take a look at Abraham -- this time straight from Genesis 22:

Continuing on with the theme of Abraham and faith, here are two patristic quotes:

And who does not see whose figure Abraham's only son was, he who bore the wood for the sacrifice of himself to that place whither he was being led to be offered up? For the Lord bore His own cross, as the Gospel tells us.

St. Augustine of Hippo. Homily IX on John II, 12.

Great indeed was the faith of Abraham. For while in the case of Abel, and of Noah, and of Enoch, there was an opposition of reasonings, and it was necessary to go beyond human reasonings; in this case it was necessary not only to go beyond human reasonings, but to manifest something more. For what was of God seemed to be opposed to what was of God; and faith opposed faith, and command promise. I mean this: He had said, 'Get out of your country, and from your kindred, and I will give you this land' (Gen. 12:1,7). 'He gave him no inheritance in it, no not so much as to set his foot on' (Acts 7:5). Do you see how what was done was opposed to the promise? Again He said, 'In Isaac your seed shall be called' (Gen. 21:12), and he believed: and again He says, Sacrifice to Me this one, who was to fill all the world from his seed. You see the opposition between the commands and the promise? He enjoined things that were in contradiction to the promises, and yet not even so did the righteous man stagger, nor say he had been deceived.

St. John Chrysostom. Homily XXV on Hebrews XI, 1., http://ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF1-14/npnf1-14-118.htm