Would you have gone? Leave your school, your friends, your family … everything that is familiar? Everything that is comfortable? No real direction. No real details. Just a promise of blessing.
It seems that Noah’s faithfulness was passed down over many generations. Today we find another man who found favor in God’s eyes. A man who listened to God’s instructions and did as he was commanded. He trusted God in a way that is difficult to understand. Just as we saw that Noah did everything God commanded him … now we meet Abram, a descendant of Noah, who also obeyed.
You would think that if you trusted God and obeyed in faith that everything to follow would be easy, right? Do you think being cooped up on a boat with all those animals for months at a time was easy for Noah and his family? What about the years it took to build the ark and everybody made fun of him? Many people believe that this was the first rain many people if not
Abram and his family encountered a famine and had to leave the land where he had traveled to and go into foreign land. I guarantee you that wasn’t easy. When the situation got difficult Abram took things into his own hands and lied, he didn’t trust that God was in control. Do you think that God would have protected Sarai if Abram had told the truth?
Finally, we see another example of trust. Abram and Lot decided to go to separate areas of the land. Abram did not jump in and try to take what looked like the best land. He trusted God enough to let Lot choose first, and Abram took what was left. And with the leftovers, God blessed Abram.
think about it:
What would it look like in your life today if you trusted God like this?
Have you bought into the lie that if you obey God everything will be easy?
How do you try to take things into your own hands instead of trusting God?
How can you leave what is comfortable in your life and step out on faith in obedience to God?
Hebrews 11:1 tells us that "faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see"... and in 11:7-12
hebrews talks about the two characters we've read about the past two days and their faith... check it out.
rewind and think again...
yesterday we read about the daughters of men and "sons of God" in Genesis 6:1-4? What's that all about?
I think faith is one of the basics of how our relationship with God is developed. Without it how can we trust that anything in the Bible is true? How can we preach to others about faith if we don’t put ALL our trust in him...? (That would be hypocritical)
ReplyDeleteI second Anonymous and would like to add that without faith, we would have nothing. If we have no faith, than we are no Christlike than the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Katelyn and Matt, and would like to add that even though we may not see God's plan for us, we can have hope knowing that faith never knows where it is being led, but it knows and loves the one who is leading, and that through Jesus we can walk through faith and not just by sight.
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