Part 1: Leave It Behind
God’s Word is filled to the brim and oozing over with truths. If we lived a thousand lifetimes, we still would not have gleaned even a tiny fraction of all that is contained within God’s Word. However, it is important for us to know that there are some easily digestible truths that we cannot live without. They are essential for living a successful life on earth, and we must make it a priority to know them now. The Apostle Paul said in 1Corinthians 3:10 that God had given him the grace to be a wise master builder. God has given each of us this same grace. With every decision and choice that we make, we are building our lives. This is why we must do all we can to know God’s Word, so that we can build strong lives that are able to withstand any storm and hold all the blessings God wants to give us.
A wise master builder understands that in order for a building to stand and not be toppled over or destroyed from storms and burdens, that building must be built on a solid foundation. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we must know that God has placed the tools, equipment, and materials in our hands. Our aim must be to build our lives wisely, and the only way to do this is to build them on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. Romans 10:17(NLT) tells us, “So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.” We need to learn about Christ so that our faith continues to grow and increase.
Abraham is known as our Father of Believing. He is awarded this designation because he was fully-persuaded that what God promised, God is also willing and able to fulfill. If Abraham had an easy time of it, and didn’t have challenges, his example of faith would not have stood out, but this wasn’t the case. Like many of us, Abraham and his wife, Sarah, had a desire that they wanted to see come to pass in their lives, but they didn’t think it was possible. During the times in which they lived, having an heir to pass on your family’s legacy was extremely important. A daughter could not receive an inheritance, but a son could, and having a son that would be his father’s heir was commonly held in high esteem.
If a woman couldn’t bear children and wasn’t able to give her husband a son, she would be considered a disappointment to her husband and family. Both Abraham and Sarah were way past the age of child-bearing years, and it’s easy to see how they might have given up on the idea, but God spoke to Abraham and said to him in Genesis 12:1-3(NLT), “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”
Our Heavenly Father had great plans for Abraham and Sarah even though they didn’t have great plans for themselves. Sarah’s womb and Abraham seed were considered dead, but God can bring the dead thing alive, and we must never forget it. With God, all things are possible. The promise of the Father was in Abraham’s DNA. God simply spoke what had been planned all along. It is the very same with us. Nothing that is happening in our lives is a surprise to Heavenly Father. He knew the decisions and choices we would make before we made them, whether they were good or bad. God has placed our true and earnest desires in our hearts, and He waits on our faith and actions to catch up to them. Once we receive His promise, He then helps us to grow in faith.
What it takes to build my faith may not be the same thing it takes to build yours. It is unique perhaps for every person, but the record of Abraham and the patterns that God set to build his faith are etched in stone. They are not up for speculation or opinions. All of us are believing God to make a piece of wonderful happen for us. It’s something that we are drawn to, have imagined, and feel that our lives are incomplete without. We didn’t all of a sudden come up with this desire. God planted it in our hearts, and it is a desire that will not only be fulfilling and meaningful to us, but it moves God’s purpose forward as well.
Abraham’s desire to have a family, a son that would continue his legacy, was a desire that was dear to his heart, but it was also drenched and saturated with the Plan and Purpose of God. Our Heavenly Father would not zap Abraham with a whammy of blessings and call it “DONE!” No, sir! Absolutely not! Abraham and Sarah had to grow in faith. They had to bring their hearts and minds to a place where they were fully persuaded, no matter how things looked, that God would fulfill the promise He had made them. They had to believe, and believing is an action. It’s not just an abstract reality that rests in our minds. It’s a catalyst that transforms thoughts into reality.
James 2:26(NLT) says, “Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works.” Faith must be backed with the right action, and God shows this in His Word through Abraham immediately after He promised to make Abraham a great nation. This was a huge deal, and it would have been a lot to swallow for any of us. Abraham could have dismissed it, because he was an old man who thought he was incapable of having a son, but he didn’t do this. God told him to leave his biological father’s homeland. Like any of us, Abraham’s home had been a place of familiarity and comfort. Moving away from it was no small feat. There were no modern conveniences during this time in biblical history and moving from place to place was quite the undertaking, but Abraham trusted God, and was obedient to God’s command. He made the choice to have faith and got busy backing it with action.
It cannot be lost on us that in order to spiritually extend Abraham’s and Sarah’s reach, they had to stretch mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Moving away from their comfort zones was an absolute must, and they could not reach the promise without it. In order to reach out and grab something new, they had to leave the old behind. This is true for us as well. We hold so tightly to the things that make us comfortable. Some of us have been praying for a very long time for our prayer requests to manifest, but God has not denied us. We have denied ourselves because we haven’t understood the requirements of faith.
Comfort is not in things, environments, or people. 2Corinthians 1:3(NLT) tells us, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.” If we don’t recognize that God is the Source of our comfort, we are believing something that isn’t true, and anything that isn’t true will set us back. So, Abraham had to lean on God utterly and completely. Saying the words won’t do it. There must be action to back up what we say we believe. Abraham proved his faith by following God’s directive. What will we do to back our faith? This is the question before each of us. The answer is not in our assumptions or opinions about the right actions to take. It is in our willingness to submit to God with the humility of Abraham and follow wherever the Father leads.■
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“The Faith of Abraham, Part 1: Leave it Behind”, written for SMS Member Services.com Copyright© 2023.