Going Without Knowing
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. – Hebrews 11:8
In our text, Abram received God’s call to go into a land of purpose and promise ordained by God. The Lord directs him to leave his country, his kindred and his father’s house and to travel to a land of fulfillment that the Lord would show him. God says if he does that, He would bless him, make his name great, and that all of the families of the earth would be blessed because of Abram.
This promise sounds good so far. There’s probably not one of us who wouldn’t like that promise proclaimed by God over our lives. There’s only one problem. God doesn’t give Abram the complete picture of what to expect along the way. The Lord doesn’t tell Abram the name, description, or the location of the place in which he would settle. He doesn’t tell him how long this trip is going to take, what direction in which he is to travel or what necessities he is to take. The Lord just tells Abram to go.
There’s no mention of a contingency plan, no mention of the kind of obstacles he will encounter, or of the conditions along the way, the Lord just says, “Go.” And yet, even though it is a trip without a map, a journey without a timetable, a voyage without a destination, Hebrews 11: 8 says that Abram, whose name is later changed to Abraham, went without knowing where he was going. That act earns him the honor of going down in the hall of faith because of his ability to walk with God and to follow the will of God without receiving all the details from God. He goes without knowing.
In a real sense, that’s what it is like for each of us when we are trying to discern and discover the will of God for our lives. We are asked to follow God even without all of the details filled in. And while it may seem scary to walk into uncertainty, we can trust that if we are following God’s lead, He will never lead us astray.
In our text, Abram received God’s call to go into a land of purpose and promise ordained by God. The Lord directs him to leave his country, his kindred and his father’s house and to travel to a land of fulfillment that the Lord would show him. God says if he does that, He would bless him, make his name great, and that all of the families of the earth would be blessed because of Abram.
This promise sounds good so far. There’s probably not one of us who wouldn’t like that promise proclaimed by God over our lives. There’s only one problem. God doesn’t give Abram the complete picture of what to expect along the way. The Lord doesn’t tell Abram the name, description, or the location of the place in which he would settle. He doesn’t tell him how long this trip is going to take, what direction in which he is to travel or what necessities he is to take. The Lord just tells Abram to go.
There’s no mention of a contingency plan, no mention of the kind of obstacles he will encounter, or of the conditions along the way, the Lord just says, “Go.” And yet, even though it is a trip without a map, a journey without a timetable, a voyage without a destination, Hebrews 11: 8 says that Abram, whose name is later changed to Abraham, went without knowing where he was going. That act earns him the honor of going down in the hall of faith because of his ability to walk with God and to follow the will of God without receiving all the details from God. He goes without knowing.
In a real sense, that’s what it is like for each of us when we are trying to discern and discover the will of God for our lives. We are asked to follow God even without all of the details filled in. And while it may seem scary to walk into uncertainty, we can trust that if we are following God’s lead, He will never lead us astray.
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