A wise friend once said, “You really can’t call it a faith journey if you have to know exactly where you’re going.”
A friend of mine was writing how her family took an adventurous trip, without a road map. They loaded up the car and headed out with no destination other than seeing where the roads would take them. What a charming, fun approach to a weekend road trip. If any of you are like me, my “to do list” never far from hand and a self-acknowledged planner at heart, this aspect of trusting the journey to reveal its own purposes represents a loss of control we aren’t always comfortable surrendering to. And yet, what a fun idea!
I enjoy people who are adventurous at heart. I think I was better at it when I was younger. On occasion, we need someone to jostle us into reminding ourselves we don’t always have to be the ones in charge, plan at the ready.
Abraham is a wonderful example of faith in what was yet to be determined as he waited for God’s promises to be manifested in his life. One can almost feel the “letting go” in the tension of Abraham’s life when he finally resigned himself to letting God be the determining factor in the course of his future, at the pace and time chosen for him by God…the actual point at which he himself finally decided to believe what God could do through Abraham was bigger than what he could ever dream for himself.
When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. (Romans 4:18)
Personally, I’m thinking I've made decisions based on what I couldn't do more frequently than I care to admit. It just seems…well, safer. It takes a much larger leap of faith in trusting what we can do if we let God be the guardian of the “to be determined” in our life. How different Abraham’s whole outlook must’ve been when he was basing his life on the fact that he couldn’t’ have kids rather than basing his life on what God COULD do in it?
… And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!" 19 Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. 20 He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, 21 sure that God would make good on what he had said. 22 That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right.” (Romans 4:18-22 MSG)
“Trusting God to set him right” is trusting God for what is still “to be determined.” There’s no need to “tiptoe around God’s promises,” we can be bold and adventurous. Boldness has God in it! As verse 21 says, “He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God.” With every day comes a new adventure and we can claim for ourselves the same bold trust that Abraham had in what God can and will do.
Photo credit: MKBurrows
A friend of mine was writing how her family took an adventurous trip, without a road map. They loaded up the car and headed out with no destination other than seeing where the roads would take them. What a charming, fun approach to a weekend road trip. If any of you are like me, my “to do list” never far from hand and a self-acknowledged planner at heart, this aspect of trusting the journey to reveal its own purposes represents a loss of control we aren’t always comfortable surrendering to. And yet, what a fun idea!
I enjoy people who are adventurous at heart. I think I was better at it when I was younger. On occasion, we need someone to jostle us into reminding ourselves we don’t always have to be the ones in charge, plan at the ready.
Abraham is a wonderful example of faith in what was yet to be determined as he waited for God’s promises to be manifested in his life. One can almost feel the “letting go” in the tension of Abraham’s life when he finally resigned himself to letting God be the determining factor in the course of his future, at the pace and time chosen for him by God…the actual point at which he himself finally decided to believe what God could do through Abraham was bigger than what he could ever dream for himself.
When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. (Romans 4:18)
Personally, I’m thinking I've made decisions based on what I couldn't do more frequently than I care to admit. It just seems…well, safer. It takes a much larger leap of faith in trusting what we can do if we let God be the guardian of the “to be determined” in our life. How different Abraham’s whole outlook must’ve been when he was basing his life on the fact that he couldn’t’ have kids rather than basing his life on what God COULD do in it?
… And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!" 19 Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. 20 He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, 21 sure that God would make good on what he had said. 22 That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right.” (Romans 4:18-22 MSG)
“Trusting God to set him right” is trusting God for what is still “to be determined.” There’s no need to “tiptoe around God’s promises,” we can be bold and adventurous. Boldness has God in it! As verse 21 says, “He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God.” With every day comes a new adventure and we can claim for ourselves the same bold trust that Abraham had in what God can and will do.
Photo credit: MKBurrows
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