We have all heard it. That calm, polite voice from the GPS: “Recalculating.”
Now, imagine God gave you directions like this: “Pack up everything. Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house. Go to the land I will show you.”
Wait. What land? Where? How far? What’s the address?
No answer. Just “go.”
That is exactly what happened to Abram. He wasn’t a young man looking for adventure, either. Abram was 75 years old when he set out. Most people his age are thinking about retirement, not relocation.
But Abram went.
Later, God made Abram another promise: his descendants would outnumber the stars in the sky. One small problem. Abram and his wife, Sarai, had no children, and they were getting older by the day.
So, what did Abram do? “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”
Any accountant will tell you that’s a remarkable entry. Abram didn’t deposit a single good deed. He just believed, and God credited his account in full.
Abram had to wait 25 years for that promised son, Isaac. Along the way, God changed his name to Abraham, “father of many nations.” Today, more than half the people on earth belong to faiths that trace their roots back to him.
So, what is faith? Faith is following God when the only directions you have are “go.”
You don’t need to see the whole map. You just need to trust the One giving directions.
And when life says, “Recalculating”? God already knows the way.
Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father, thank-you for leading me even when I can’t see where I’m going. Thank-you for giving me the faith of Abraham, so that I will go when You say “go” and believe when You make a promise. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Wikipedia: Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Abrahamic religions
Look-It Up:
The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” … Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.
He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
Free Bonus:
Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born, and Sarah was 90. When she first heard the news, Sarah laughed. So they named the baby Isaac, which means “he laughs.”
Genesis 15:6 is quoted three times in the New Testament: in Romans 4:3, Galatians 3:6 and James 2:23.