Uncomfortable Faith
Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.
The day I gave my life to Jesus … I’d been dragged along to a church by some friends. I seriously didn’t want to go. It was a warm, sunny day, but my hands were cold and clammy. Other than weddings and funerals, my frame hadn’t darkened the doorstep of a church for a good fifteen years.
The Pastor, Ted Keating, preached a message entitled God is Calling You – all about how God called Abram out of his wealthy, comfortable existence in a place called Ur and sent him on a twenty–five year wild goose chase.
I mean back in Ur, where Abram and Sarai lived, life was good. It was safe, it was predictable and it was oh so comfortable. Okay, he and his wife Sarai couldn’t have any children, there’s a bit of a downer, but you know … the buses ran on time, his fifty inch plasma TV had remote control … and yet God says to him: leave this place and I’m going to give you a new land and I’m going to make you the father of a great nation.
That was crazy! It was absolutely nuts. Abram and Sarai were 75 years old. She was well and truly beyond childbearing age. God didn’t even tell Abram where they were going, how He was going to turn this crazy promise into a reality. Abram was wealthy, he was settled – going would mean uprooting everything, and for what? A crazy promise?! And yet …
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8)
Now, through that one courageous decision, you and I are still being blessed today. Through that decision, as one thing led to another, the nation of Israel was born, they were eventually led into the Promised Land, and there … there Jesus, the Son of God, slipped quietly into this world to save you and me.
Of course, all that happened centuries later. Abraham never got to see all those promises come to fruition. He only saw his little part of the plan, the miraculous birth of his son Isaac, when he and Sarah were over 100 years old
So, the next time God taps you on the shoulder, the next time God’s calling you out of comfort zone to send you on some wild, ridiculous goose chase … will you go?
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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