056 Abraham: The Journey
The extent that you trust God will be the key determiner for how you navigate your life.
This is true no matter where you are along the spiritual spectrum – whether you’re a skeptic, a seeker, or a Christ-follower. Since we don’t know what the future holds, nearly every decision we make is strongly influenced by what or who we trust. In short, how you live will be determined by who and who much you trust.
This is why a study of Abraham can be so powerful. Because ongoingly he had to grapple with who God was and whether He could be trusted. And, as we’ll see, it was no easier for him than it is for us.
Abram (later changed to Abraham) lived during the end of the Early Bronze Age (around 2000 BC) in a thriving, bustling, cultured city known as “Ur of the Chaldeans” (located in modern-day Iraq).
From all that we can deduce, Abram and his family were highly successful and quite prosperous, living very comfortably in that culture. When the Bible picks up his story, Abram is a 75-year-old man of wealth and status.
People in ancient Mesopotamia worshiped a pantheon of many gods. And we know from Joshua 24:2 that Terah, Abram’s father, and the clan patriarch, worshiped these gods.
This makes the Lord’s invitation to Abram all the more remarkable. God graciously appeared uniquely to Abram and gave him an extraordinary challenge and with it an intriguing opportunity.
“Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” (Genesis 12:1-2)
Think about that for a minute. Your journey of trust and my journey of trust are greatly encouraged because we have the stories of people like Abraham in the Bible for us to learn from. But Abraham didn’t have that! There was no Bible back then!
He had to start his journey of trust with very little information. Just enough trust to take a step.
Some of you find trusting God to be a relatively easy thing these days because He’s shown Himself to be so faithful in powerful ways.
But for many us, that’s not the case. All of life’s disappointments and pains, injustices, and sorrows make up “Exhibit A” in the case against trusting God. Then we take that list and hold it close to our hearts until our hearts become hardened.
Sometimes disappointment from the past becomes an excuse for keeping God out of the present.
Would you be willing to hold “Exhibit A” a bit more loosely? Would you be willing to open up to the possibility that maybe you don’t have all the facts yet regarding God’s character and actions?
Trust is based in the knowledge of and confidence in the one in whom it’s placed.
The more you understand the character of God and His love for and commitment to you, the more you’ll trust Him.
Text: Hebrew 11:8-10; Genesis 12:1-2
Originally recorded August 10, 2014, at Fellowship Missionary Church, Fort Wayne, IN.